The cuts will see 11 per cent of the Canadian tech giant, which practically invented the smartphone market until Apple came along with its pesky iPhone, collecting their P45s as the company struggles to keep up with the game.
RIM’s first foray into the tablet market with its business-centric PlayBook device seems to have been an unmitigated disaster, with reports suggesting that the company has only managed to ship 50,000 units of the touch-screen gadget.
It looks like things are being further shaken up at the company’s Ontario HQ with COO Don Morrison taking early retirement and Thorsten Heins stepping into his shoes in an expanded role of COO of product and sales.
RIM said in a statement that it would be shedding staff throughout the company in an attempt to “focus on areas that offer the highest growth opportunities,” according to Bloomberg.
RIM’s BlackBerry handsets, which were once the de facto standard for besuited business types because of their bombproof email and messaging services, have since been overtaken by devices running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems.
The company announced last month that it had failed to meet even lowered profit forecasts and had reduced shipments of hardware in light of reduced sales.
The company’s stock has dropped 52 per cent already this year and is bound to take another kicking once this news gets out.