RIM announces 2,000 job cuts
Posted Jul 25, 2011 09:10:49 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has announced they will be cutting as many as 2,000 positions as part of their cost optimization plan.
The cuts will amount to nearly 11% of Research in Motion’s total workforce. RIM provided the details after first revealing a plan to reduce its workforce about a month ago. At that time, it did not say how many jobs it would eliminate.
The move comes as RIM (TSX:RIM) also said that chief operating officer Don Morrison will retire after taking a temporary medical leave last month.
RIM had a terrible quarter and not just their market share dropped, for the first time, their unit sales of Blackberries actually declined from the previous quarter. And RIM was the third biggest smartphone maker. When that big a player is losing sales, the others have to pick up the slack else we won’t see growth in the quarter.
Sales of Android-powered devices, including handsets made by Samsung, LG and Motorola, are growing astronomically in the US according to new data from market researcher comScore.
In the three-month period ending in May 2011, an average of 38.1 percent of all smartphone subscribers had a device running Google’s Android operating system (OS), up 5.1 points from an average of 33 percent in the three-month period ending in February 2011.
Apple strengthened its market share too, stealing second place from flailing BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) and growing by 1.4 points to gain a 26.6 percent share of the smartphone market.
RIM saw its market share fall by 4.2 percent to 24.7 percent. As consumers purchased and used more capable mobile devices, their mobile content usage increased too.
In the three months ending in May 2011, 69.5 percent of mobile subscribers sent a text message, 39.8 percent used a browser, 38.6 percent downloaded apps, 28.6 percent accessed a social networking site or blog, 26.9 percent played games and 18.6 percent listened to music on their handset.
In Europe, Nokia appears to be fighting a losing battle against Google’s popular smartphone platform.
Top 5 Mobile OEMs in the US by mobile subscriber share, 3-month average ending May 2011:
Samsung – 24.8%
LG – 21.1%
Motorola – 15.1%
Apple – 8.7%
RIM – 8.1%
