back to article RIM delays BlackBerry 10 launch, bins 5000 bods

RIM has reported disastrous quarterly results and is delaying the launch of the new BlackBerry 10 operating system until next year. The company will also shed 5,000 staff. In its latest earnings call the company reported revenues fell 33 per cent to $2.8bn in the last quarter, leaving them down 43 per cent on this time last …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Excellent

    What else can you say beyond, whatever RIM do, do the opposite and you have a winning move.

    Delaying a delayed, delayed release again is a nail too far alas and the fat lady is already warmed up.

    All I can add is - if you see somebody who was a manager and worked at Nortel and then RIM, THINK before you employ them as unless your planning a downsize of epic proportions you can do better.

    I sadly can't think of ONE exception to that Nortel/RIM rule, but could name so many. But thats non-technical managers for you.

    They wont make the year as they stand now, give up RIM as no matter what you do it gets worse and you pissed off all the wrong people in the process as well. Banks don't like you even. Nobody running to buy you, and given this I know why. Give it another 3 months and somebody going to buy you for penuts and a few magic beans and sell the good parts to others.

    Nothing more to be said, RIM is dead.

    1. Mr Atoz
      Stop

      Re: Excellent

      Not saying that restructuring is going to defineatlly save them but how does a company that turns $2.8 billion revenue in a single quarter just fail?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Excellent

        With shit managment of ineptness. How else can a company with such a turnover make such epic loss.

        1. bill 36

          Re: Excellent

          I have a golden rule.

          Any of the suits that use the phrase "going forward" are not to be taken seriously.

      2. Anonymous Coward 101

        Re: Excellent

        'Not saying that restructuring is going to defineatlly save them but how does a company that turns $2.8 billion revenue in a single quarter just fail?'

        By spending more than $2.8 billion every quarter.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Turnover

        Turnover and profit, two different things.

        Business needs to make profit not turnover to be successful.

      4. Fuzz

        Re: Excellent

        Just look at Nortel, a company that not only had a decent turnover, they also had a very good product with a huge install base and yet they managed to nearly fail once and then finaly complete the failure recently.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      10....

      Withholding this is either that it (10) and the new updated OS I'd not good enough or they are waiting to see the impact of android or the new iOS when in comes out in the autumn and then update it to make sure they remain competitive.

      Bringing out a new device and updated system at the same time that Apple will launch theirs is risky if they get eclipsed. Not to mention if it would fail to stand up to ICS and the S3.

    3. Julian Taylor
      Thumb Up

      Re: Excellent

      You might also want to add Nokia to that list.

  2. Mikel
    FAIL

    Requiem

    There doesn't seem much left to say. Pride goeth before a fall.

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm a BB user, but not through choice

      Bring your own device to work and all the associated risks for the business that goes with it.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I'm a BB user, but not through choice

        "Bring your own device to work and all the associated risks for the business that goes with it."

        Potentially yes. But there's now real business risk in tying your mobility solutions to RIM, and that's an aspect that will hasten the demise of the company. Who in their right mind would now be recommending that their company use RIM's services, given the portents? Those currently on the service can smell the smoke as well, and must be considering how to keep the CEO connected. So the revenue bleed will continue, new activations will decline, losses increase, and they'll be out of cash soon enough. With around $2.2bn in cash, and average cash losses of $300m they've got seven quarters before they die. That's at current rates - the redundancies will put the cash drain up briefly, then reduce operating cost, but the problem is they are reducing investment, with probable impacts on both the infrastructure, and the OS development. By the time BB10 launches it will be outdated. RIM, sadly, are patent troll fodder, and any company daft enough to rely on the BB platform could find they have to make new arrangements pronto when the sale comes. Of course, if the board had any sense of duty to the investors they'd announce the cessation of network operations as soon as possible without incurring penalties, return the balance sheet cash to investors, and sell the fixed assets and intellectual property assets in a controlled manner.

        Like Nokia, it's a tragedy, and you can smell Microsoft lurking in the wings here. MS as the grim reaper of software does seem appropriate, but even MS are dependant upon legacy assets, rather than making cash from new stuff, so you can't help wondering what the future holds.

    2. Valerion

      Re: I'm a BB user, but not through choice

      I had my work XDA2 "upgraded" to a Blackberry (no idea which one to be honest). I was shocked at how bad it was. Having used iOS for a couple of years, the UI was just absolutely awful. Nothing was intuitive. Doing the simplest thing was complicated.

      The Nokias I used in the 90s were superior to use.

      In the ultimate show of derision though, my teenage daughter had enough of her Blackberry (which, incidentally, pretty much fell apart after 18 months - the build quality was appalling) and decided she wanted an iPhone instead. Even BBM couldn't keep her tied to Blackberry. The teenagers were the last market left for Blackberry really. And with cheap, far superior, Android handsets readily available, that will be the end.

  4. Bob Vistakin
    Pint

    "The company shifted 7.8 million handsets over the last three months"

    Android activated 8 million handsets over the last 8 days

    1. KnucklesTheDog

      Re: "The company shifted 7.8 million handsets over the last three months"

      Well they could always start making Android handsets then.

  5. Giles Jones Gold badge

    All they need to finish themselves off now is a Ratner moment:

    "People ask me, how can we sell the Blackberry Curve for £100. Easy, because it's total crap".

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stick a fork in it

    this berry's cooked

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They are going the way of Palm ...

    Unfortunately..

  8. Tony Paulazzo
    Alien

    >with 5,000 jobs being cut in a move that will cost a one-time charge of $350m. The company has however hired a new chief legal officer to replace Karima Bawa<

    And I wonder how much she (he?) cost to come onboard, jeez, it sounds like a comedy of errors, who did Rim piss off in the Illuminati to get ground into the dirt like this.

  9. Anonymous Coward 101

    Why didn't they just buy Palm?

    They had an operating system ready, and people were writing apps for it. It would have been much easier and cheaper compared with developing their own OS. Without BB10 devices ready for Christmas, they are dead meat.

    This question also applied to Nokia.

    1. Bronek Kozicki

      Re: Why didn't they just buy Palm?

      They bought another operating system, that's why (QNX)

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    i upgrade mobile contracts....

    and virtually no one with a BB wants one ever again. speaks volumes

    1. AJ MacLeod

      Re: i upgrade mobile contracts....

      Well, I have a BB (Pearl 3G), arriving at the end of the 2 year contract - I DO want another one but looks like I can't get it!

      Nobody has yet pointed me to a better (or even just similar) smartphone which has a proper _phone_ keypad on it...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apples/Oranges

    Unfair to compare Curves with iPhones.

    Compare the price of both on unsubsidised PAYG and you'll see why.

    I've used my partners Curve on occassions and hate the damned thing - feels like a turd in your hand, screen etc piss poor - love my Bold though.

    Still impossible to beat a BB for email IMHO.. and I can still type/navigate mails etc faster with a trackpad (and with one hand) rather than clarting around with a touch screen.

    (Bold has a touch-screen, NEVER use it!)

  12. RyokuMas
    Coat

    No more BB?

    Damn, what are the rioters going to use to communicate now?

  13. Azzy

    It hurts to watch...

    They desperately need the new version of their OS released. They needed it last year. And yet, they dropped the ball, again.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Frustrating as I think the world needs what RIM offers.

    I do not think that RIMs troubles are good for the wider market. There will be a need for decent, manageable business phones and I do not think that we will get them from Apple or Android - do not get me wrong they are excellent consumer products but they offer far more than is really needed for a business user. I want my staff working rather than downloading apps, playing games etc.

    I guess that solutions for managing iPhones/Droids in a similar way to BES will be adopted but users will just then moan about being restricted.

    ps. I love my PlayBook

  15. leexgx

    BB

    i like the blackberry them self's (guess its just the keyboard i like and instant email I care less for BBM as i never use it) when i whent from an BB 8520 to an 9870 i was about to send it back to orange as they F up the calender on it (i can live with agenda view, on the newer blackberry OS they made the calender view 2 spaces big and it ignores the Hide time rules i want Only to see times from 9am to 6PM on the newer OS it just "greys" them out so very useless Agenda view is fine)

    i was waiting for an windows 7 mobile to come out and i thought i just buy an cheap 8520 from ebay see what they was like, 2 years later i am still using an blackberry if Rim fail i just get an windows 8 phone when they come (no point been stuck with dead end windows 7 phones)

    if i only had 1 phone i Most likely would have an Android or more likely an windows 7 phone (but do not like the calender on Android it sucks compared to blackberry and windows6mobile or win7Phone calender)

    my second backup/Fun phone is android with giffgaff (currently HTC desire soon to be HTC one X) [my main phone Diverts to it when the phone is unreachable/no coverage/ cant make phone ring]

  16. Julian Taylor
    Black Helicopters

    And even worse ...

    Try connecting to the BlackberryApp World.

    First of all you have to restart IE in 32-bit mode, or Firefox 32 bit mode, just in order to use the site.

    Then you have to install the new app on your blackberry.

    Once you have had to crash the blackberry and wait 10 minutes for it to restart then you then find that you need to create another Blackberry ID and provide your credit card details for 'free' apps.

    Failure to do this crashes the webpage you are on.

    I'd send them a wreath if only the contact page on their site didn't crash as well ...

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