In the rest of the world, Heins said, "we're still growing," fueled by the entry-level BlackBerry smartphones that continue to "do very well." Overseas, "we are under pressure there," he said. "We have to compete there and we will."

BlackBerry 7 still has a future in all markets as the basis of entry-level smartphones. "We won't shut that down," Heins said. RIM has a dedicated BB7 group, several hundred strong, in Raleigh, N.C. "We're absolutely committed to an entry-level BlackBerry 7."

But there should be no doubt about RIM's direction. "A new platform is a new platform," he said. "There can't be compatibility [between them]. BlackBerry 7 is a strong smartphone base. BlackBerry 10 is a mobile computing base."

RIM's PlayBook Tablet has not been on overnight success. Heins said the company's tablet focus currently is the enterprise.

"The question is 'what is the real value of the tablet?'" he said. "The focus is on being an enterprise productivity success story, and then if that works, take it into the consumer space." He said there would be a 4G PlayBook later this year but didn't suggest that there would be new models or designs for the PlayBook beyond that.