Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
Summary: Research in Motion will lay off 2,000 employees as it struggles to navigate a void in its product line-up as well as lower-than-expected sales.
Research in Motion said Monday it will lay off 2,000 employees as it struggles to navigate a void in its product line-up as well as lower-than-expected sales.
When the layoffs are complete, RIM will have about 17,000 employees globally. The company said that it will take a charge in its fiscal second quarter and exact figures will be disclosed when RIM reports earning Sept. 15.
Along with the layoffs, RIM is shuffling its executive suite. First, Don Morrison, RIM's chief operating officer who is currently on medical leave, will retire. Thorsten Heins will become chief operating officer for product and sales. In a nutshell, all product engineering---hardware and software---will be consolidated under Thorsten.
Patrick Spence will become managing director of global sales and regional marketing. Spence will report to Heins.
Among other key management roles at RIM:
- Robin Bienfait will become responsible to RIM's enterprise unit. She is already RIM's CIO focused on BlackBerry operations, customer service and corporate IT.
- David Yach, CTO of software, will focus on RIM's developer relations and application ecosystem.
- Jim Rowan will be chief operating officer of operations and focus on manufacturing, supply chain and repair. Rowan and CFO Brian Bidulka will oversee RIM's current cost cutting efforts.
Overall, these moves are designed to help RIM "create greater alignment of the organization" and "streamline operations to better position the company for future growth and profitability." However, RIM needs to get on the board with new products more than anything. RIM needs a hit device more than cost cutting moves.
RIM co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis took some heat from shareholders earlier this month at the company's annual meeting. The co-CEOs talked up RIM's upcoming BlackBerry OS 7.0 devices and the company's next big product launches. The problem is that these devices are the warm-up act for so-called superphones powered by the QNX operating system.
Some analysts are questioning the leadership of Balsillie and Lazaridis and have noted that RIM has missed key inflection points in the smartphone industry. Specifically, RIM has wrestled with the software integration with its hardware. In the meantime, RIM's market share in the smartphone industry continues to erode.
Today's cost-cutting efforts are designed to help RIM hold the fort until its new products juice growth. At least that's the plan of Balsillie and Lazaridis.
RIM has made a series of acquisitions to better compete on the software front. For instance, RIM acquired JayCut last week. And last year RIM acquired The Astonishing Tribe, a user interface optimization firm. Before that purchase RIM bought Torch Mobile and QNX. Add it up and RIM is serious about software, but it's unclear whether the company can master hardware, software and the necessary integration in between. Balsillie has argued that the next wave of RIM products will set the company up for the next decade, but skeptics abound.
Related:
Vultures circle RIM management: BlackBerry 7 devices as savior?
- BlackBerry PlayBook vs. HP TouchPad: A tale of two failures
- RIM confirms new BlackBerry Bold 9900 “will be available this summer”
- Apple’s iOS zips past RIM as Blackberry product vacuum continues
- AT&T finally approves BlackBerry Bridge app, slaps on $20/month for tethering
- AT&T releases BlackBerry Bridge for the PlayBook over 2 months after release
- Alas, poor RIM and BlackBerry, we knew them well
- RIM’s conundrum: Convincing you to buy a BlackBerry 7.0 device?
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Talkback
Bla Bla Blackberry, Have you any phones?
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
RIM should adopt android
Then it will shine again.
Why?
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
people demand native android not emulators or 'layers'.
and QNX can't be superior to a Linux based OS as the sales show.
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
Android runs on top of Linux, and could run on top of any other O/S (like QNX), there is no such thing as "native Android" (go ahead and try to run it w/o Linux).
I'm betting that you have never hardly heard of QNX prior the RIM Playbook, and have absolutely no clue about its superiority or lack thereof. It is installed in a whole bunch of embedded stuff you probably have heard of and/or used. I would be willing to bet there are a whole lot more sales of QNX than Linux (duh, I can pretty easily count to zero for Linux, and no, paying for support doesn't count).
Perhaps you should stick to programming in Visual Basic on the LoseDoze O/S platform as a Micr0$uck$ "Certified Professional".
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
Share some of what you're smoking. It must be good.
Drop a perfectly capable OS that has the ability to run Android for.....Android. And that lets Google drive their software ship.
RIM's problem is a lack of vision. They let the market catch up and no longer has the momentum. Like a drag race, if you put your foot on the gas late, you need twice the acceleration to catch up or you will lose.
Basillie et al need to step aside, but the problem is, none of RIM's B team is up to the challenge and they're too stubborn to quit. I think the over-under on RIM is about 3 more years before they follow Nokia into whocares-ville.
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
only android and an alliance with google could bring a new 'vision'.
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
android is the best and fastest growing OS. QNX is unproven to the OSS community and the users.
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
I agree that Android is buggy as I have one (supplied by my job) and it does have it's bugs and secutiry issues.
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
QNX has been around since long before Linux. (Think almost a decade longer.) It has proved it's merits in embedded systems time and time again. Any REAL embedded systems developer knows and (probably) respects the OS... even if they don't actively use it themselves.
That car that you can't afford because you are too busy sitting in your mum's basement writing idiotic statements on ZDnet probably runs QNX, the wind turbine that generates power so you can post idiotic comments from your Windows ME... yep, that's probably QNX. The semi-automated factory that assembled your Star Wars action dolls that are your only real friends... Yep, QNX.
The nice thing about a real-time microkernel architecture (like QNX) is that it is a lot more flexible than a monolithic POS like Linux.
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
I'm confused... why is it that everytime someone disagrees with someone else, the first thing they can think of saying is that the other guy is exhibiting "childish" behavior... Anyone?? Can anyone help me out here?? Anyone??
Of course, I guess I have to give you *some* credit, at least you didn't take the typical defensive approach that @hackerj did, immediately jumping on the anti-BIGBUSINESS flaming...
I know at least *some* of you are older than age 12...
Geez... keep it constructive, can we at least do that??
Anyone???
-mark
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
Why would they go to a lesser system?
My phone is Android. It's okay, but not all that great.
Your suggestion is similar to the Beta vs VHS video battle. Some people suggested that Sony go with the system which won the battle, and trash their own system which many considered to the be the superior of the two. After many years of struggle, Sony did release some VHS devices but not because they felt it was a step-up.
Yes, RIM should adopt android, but
@ the rest of you who commented to Linux Geek: Those who say that QNX is a better OS, that may be the case, but it doesn't matter. Android has reached critical mass, RIM has lost the critical mass that it once had. The only way to get it back on the QNX platform would be to have a game-changing technology. It can't just work a little better or be less buggy, it has to do something totally different that appeals to a large audience that other smartphones won't be able to do any time soon. I don't see that happening.
Since RIM handles hardware and software, they should take advantage of this fact to build the best Android phones possible. They may even be able to get the attention of the media by producing a "Droidberry" phone or something like that.
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
What would motivate RIM to give up QNX's technical advantages in order to do a pure Android phone, when that pure Android phone won't do anything a QNX phone can't?
RE: Research in Motion lays off 2,000 workers, still needs a hit device
The problem for RIM is that no one is going to think that the QNX OS will run an Android app as well an Android phone will. There's always going to be a fear that there will be some configuration issue that will prevent some apps from working. So they are at a disadvantage with the QNX platform.
If the new blackberries can really run Android as fast and good as an equally matched Android phone (call me a skeptic), then they ought to consider licensing the OS for dirt cheap or open source it. Then the OS might stand a chance of surviving.