ton1c

iTrader: (1)

http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/25/tech...htm?hpt=te_bn4



NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry devices, said Monday that it would cut more than 2,000 jobs as part of a previously announced cost-cutting effort.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said the cuts amount to over 10% of its total workforce. RIM's headcount will be reduced to about 17,000 after the pink slips are handed out this week.

Shares of RIM (RIMM) fell more than 1% in premarket trading.

The company also announced new responsibilities for its top management "to create greater alignment of the organization." The most major change was the retirement of chief operating officer Don Morrison, who left the company after having been on medical leave. He was replaced by Thorsten Heins.

For several quarters, analysts' calls for a management overhaul have grown louder. Many believe the company's dual-CEO model, headed by Jim Balsillie and Mike Laziridis, is inefficient.

RIM's CEOs blasted back against talk of an executive shakeup last month, arguing that they are the right men to steer the company back on track.

RIM was once the leader of the smartphone market in North America, but sales have been waning recently as many other device makers have introduced devices with broader appeal.

The latest, greatest BlackBerry smartphone, the Torch, is nearly a year old -- an eon in the fast-paced mobile device market. Meanwhile, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) are now outselling the former heavyweight.

Very disappointing sales of BlackBerry smartphones and its PlayBook tablets during the last quarter led RIM to cut its full-year profit expectations by 30% last month. As a result, RIM announced in June that it would begin a program to "streamline operations," which would include layoffs.

Xscorpio

no new innovation = failure

Xscorpio

PlayBook = epic failure

when they introduce playbook, stocks went down like 10% or something

shlammed

It has much more to do with the fact that the devices which just came out were delayed by months which means lower margins due to aging product lines selling for less and less.

The new devices are selling well so far. Our results starting in Q3 will be much better. The upcoming earnings won't be great because the new devices came out with only a few weeks left in the quarter.

The stock has gone up 30% over the last few weeks. It's not as bad as the media likes to pretend it is.

ton1c

iTrader: (1)

So while at telus getting my new Android and dumping the torch, 2 ladies are there. Both also dumping the torch, 1 for an Iphone and 1 for an Android as well.

Then and there I knew I made a right decision and as I get used to the Android and screen typing I know it was a good choice. I love my Samsung Galaxy, i miss the keyboard from the BB but I am getting over it, fast.

trunk_munkey

the modern day business model is due to change in a drastic way. Companies are made and broken in a matter of days. This doesn't lend to any confidence in the market. Blackberry is changing with the times as every company does. The media is our worst enemy. To be judged on a Q'ly basis makes any business susceptible to catastrophic failure, even the apple's of the world. That is with a month of bad press.

shlammed

Last year's Torch or the new one?

The new ones are much faster and smoother. I just don't like that form factor. The new 9900 Bold is pimp.

MyVtecGoesBWAH

Galaxy is one of the most laggy phones i have ever used, i dont even like it for texting. sometimes it even has problems receiving texts.Iphone 4 only has the camera and games going for it. wouldnt both me if RIM went out of business. i bought he torch first week it came out. only problem ive had was the battery at first other then that its been a okay phone. in my opinion all cells have their flaws. my bb does everything i want it to do. would i stick with bb? probably not, i like to see what is new on the market first.

Sumol15

The latest, greatest BlackBerry smartphone, the Torch, is nearly a year old -- an eon in the fast-paced mobile device market. Meanwhile, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) are now outselling the former heavyweight.

How can they spout this bs when Apple releases the iPhone once a year as well. In fact its been over a year now for the new iPhone 5. Its obvious its all about hype. Blackberry offers a range of devices compared to one Apple product.

Xscorpio

i liked torch when i first got it, but now i hate it. i really like the new 9900 bold, look and feels amazing. lets see if my work upgrades me to new phone

also i am looking forward for next gen iphone, rogers contract is up in sep, so i will have more room to negotiate a good plan

Xscorpio

also my buddy sold his BB for android and loving it so far, live backgrounds and other features are so refreshing. who know instead of iphone 5 i might get android phone, apparently Motorola (google) is coming out with a really powerful android phone.

shlammed

Because the devices back then really were far behind the market standards for hardware. The ones that are out now are literally twice as powerful than the previous generation.

shlammed

There's more than meets the eye. You can make a quad-core phone if you want, but what's the point when it doesn't have an OS and apps to take full advantage of those cores. All you end up with is a phone that chews through your battery in hours.

ton1c

iTrader: (1)

Very very tough times for Rim
RIM shares drop as sales and profit plunge

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Research in Motion was once the king of the smartphone market. Now, it's looking like the next Palm -- a pioneer that fell hopelessly behind in a market it invented.

RIM (RIMM)'s shares fell 20% in morning trading Friday, a day after the company announced grim second-quarter results that fell far short of Wall Street's sales and earnings forecasts.

RIM shipped 10.6 million BlackBerry smartphones to retailers last quarter, below the 11 million to 12.5 million it had expected to ship. Its entry in the tablet wars, the BlackBerry PlayBook, shipped just 200,000 units -- a significant drop-off from the 500,000 RIM shipped in the prior quarter. The PlayBook went on sale in April.

RIM's iconic but aging BlackBerry is struggling to keep up with the industry's innovators: Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhone and Google's (GOOG, Fortune 500) Android platform.

The problem could be temporary. This quarter was a transitional one, as RIM readies QNX, the next-generation operating system powering the PlayBook and an upcoming line of smartphones. RIM hasn't set a release timeframe yet for its QNX phones, but it plans to show off its progress at next month's DevCon event in San Francisco.

RIM has a lot riding on QNX. But will it be enough to catch up to Apple, Google, and even Microsoft, whose Windows Phone 7 will get a big boost from upcoming Nokia devices?

"While RIM management remains bullish on its prospects for the PlayBook and new Blackberry 7 smartphones, we maintain our more cautious view," Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley wrote Friday in a research note. "We believe RIM is underestimating the increasingly competitive smartphone environment."

In a conference call with analysts late Thursday following the earnings release, RIM's co-CEOs struck a defiantly optimistic tone.

PlayBook sales are "well below where we would like it to be," co-CEO Mike Laziridis conceded, but RIM expects its upcoming "PlayBook 2.0" software overhaul to goose sales. That update, which will be demonstrated at RIM's DevCon and released soon after, will bring oft-requested features including built-in native e-mail, calendar and contact-management tools.

But analysts aren't sold on RIM's argument that its problems are a temporary part of a turnaround master plan.

"You appear quite confident about BlackBerry 7," RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky said on the call, referring to the new operating system RIM rolled out last month. "I'm just wondering why you feel that confidence, given that sell-through is obviously coming in below what you expect."

Laziridis said RIM is "thrilled" with its BB7 launch, and expects sales to pick up in coming quarters as momentum builds.

However, some see big obstacles ahead.

"Although management implied RIMM's transition challenges were behind them with the release of BB7 smartphones, we are skeptical," analysts Alkesh Shah and Preeti Doshi of Evercore Partners wrote in a research note.

"Challenges remaining include low-end competition from Android smartphones, high-end competition from the upcoming iPhone 5, persuading Android developers to port to BB7 and QNX, and increased Android tablet competition from multiple vendors," they wrote.

RIM's first all-touch phone, the BlackBerry Torch 9850, went on sale Thursday for Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) Wireless customers -- to generally negative reviews.

"If for some reason I was forced to either use RIM's BlackBerry Torch 9850 or the first-generation 2007 iPhone as my daily phone, there's no question what I would choose: the iPhone," BGR's Jonathan S. Geller wrote in his analysis of the phone.
Can RIM be saved?

RIM still has a few big assets, including an entrenched corporate customer base and carriers with a vested interest in keeping the BlackBerry flames flickering.

"We believe RIMM benefits from carrier desire to support a viable No. 3 platform to fend off Google and Apple," Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu wrote this week in a note to clients.

But RIM's long-term survival will hinge on the success of QNX. RIM plans to pitch QNX phones to the high end of the market, taking on the iPhone and Android flagships, while selling BB7 devices at cheaper price points.

"I would say that we have two very strong platforms, and they're targeted at two different markets," RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said. "I expect both of them to have a very strong long-term co-existence."

RIM said it expects its BlackBerry shipments to rebound next quarter to a range of 13.5 million to 14.5 million units -- a pickup of around 30% from this quarter. The company's forecast for sales is for at least $5.3 billion.

RIM earned $329 million in the quarter that ended Aug. 27, less than half of its profit a year ago. RIM booked a one-time charge of $118 million for costs associated with a reorganization announced in July. As part of that plan, RIM said it was slashing 2,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce.

Excluding the charge, RIM reported earnings of 80 cents per share, below the 88 cents per share that analysts had expected.

shlammed

^^^all that was expected

guidance for the current quarter is much higher.

Xscorpio

thats what they have been saying or predicting every quarter thus far

Civic-Roger

First article, 2000 jobs is a hell of a lot of jobs to cut. Woe.

shlammed

Talk out of your *** much?

We warned everyone months ago that the past quarter we just reported on would be as bad as it was due to aging product lineups, no new offerings, and lower margins. In other words, guidance was correct. It came in a tad lower due to the costs involved with laying off 2000 people.

So, you were saying?

ton1c

iTrader: (1)

Shareholders are happy when they are making money, they generally dont make much noise unless they feel they can make more, but at the end of the day they are happy.

Shareholders calling for a sell off is bad news for RIM. I think they will be here for the long haul but getting back to the top will be tough.

shlammed

Indeed, but the current market value is rediculous. Our patents alone are probably worth more.