AfterDawn: News

R.I.P BlackBerry

It is about time to write an obituary on the once hallowed smartphone maker.

RIM, the company behind the BlackBerry line of smartphones and the Playbook tablet has delayed their BlackBerry 10-based phones until the end of 2012, effectively putting the final nail in their coffin.



The company says they are delaying the launch of the BlackBerry 10 devices as they wait for the production of dual-core chips with LTE support.

RIM had initially planned to release the phones in February-April.

Outside of the delay, the company's earnings got smashed, with profits falling to $265 million for the Q3 2011, down from $911 million in the same quarter in 2010. Furthermore, the company downgraded their forecast for sales in the Q4, to 11 million units. This compares to 14.8 million sold in the same period last year. That figure hurts the most as the holiday season is normally a seasonally strong period for phone sales.

RIM's market share in the U.S., its largest market, has fallen from 44 percent in 2009 to just 10.5 percent in November, as Android and iOS continue to grow.

Additionally, the company announced more bad news, with a $356 million write-down for poor sales of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and a $40 million loss due to the 2-day service outage they experienced earlier this year that left users without emails and texts.

RIM's stock has fallen 91 percent since its peak in 2008.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Dec 2011 21:36

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• 11 comments

• ivymike

  Don't count them out just yet. Corporate America is filled with surprising turnarounds. It ain't over till the fat lady sings.

  15.12.2011 21:44 #1

• DVDBack23

  Originally posted by ivymike: Don't count them out just yet. Corporate America is filled with surprising turnarounds. It ain't over till the fat lady sings. They aren't American :) The fat lady has sung, and she's singing iOS and Android.
  

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  15.12.2011 22:02 #2

• ddp

  no as they are canadian.
  

  15.12.2011 22:35 #3

• Jeffrey_P

  Originally posted by ivymike: Don't count them out just yet. Corporate America is filled with surprising turnarounds. It ain't over till the fat lady sings. Like Apple in the mid-90's.
  They still only have 10% of the desktop market share.
  
  I feel without Lord Jobs, except for their igadgets will fail again for the second time.
  
  Jeff

  15.12.2011 22:59 #4

• plutonash

  There's really only 4 real good phones to look forward to next year. That would be the iPhone 5(ios 6), nexus prime/nexus IV(jelly donut/bean) Nokia windows phone 7.5-x series, and the Samsung GS3 for its raw power. Everything else will just be eclipsed by these phones and settle for sideline sales.
  

  "Cable thief is a victimless crime."

  15.12.2011 23:09 #5

• KillerBug

  Quote:The company says they are delaying the launch of the BlackBerry 10 devices as they wait for the production of dual-core chips with LTE support. LoL...you mean like those made a year ago? Yeah...if their next big move is to go dual-core, they have no hope.
  
  Good riddance; their corporate structure worked well when they were effectively a smartphone monopoly, but they can't compete in a 4-way battle without total restructuring...and they won't restructure until it is too late.
  
  Of course you never know...they could get bought up by someone else when they become a junk stock, forced to restructure, and before you know it, we could see a bunch of top-end android phones with keyboards targeted at corporate types and slaughtering the competition in this market. Anything is possible.
  

  
  

  16.12.2011 01:45 #6

• xyqo

  Those idiots have done everything to the letter from the text book "How to Ruin a Multi-Billion Dollar Company". How do people who were once so successful manage to tank this badly. Mike the Lizard is still there did he just become stupid one day or what?
  

  XXYYQQOO!!! Yeah WELCOME TO JAMROCK
  
  

  16.12.2011 10:14 #7

• jrp696

  They're trying to hard to create a different phone than the norm. Though differentiation can be a great competitive advantage this is a clear example of how too much focus on it can bring a company down. Blackberry needs to ditch their primitive os and jump the ship and move towards android. They should focus more on hardware and create a specialized android OS with a special UI. Blackberry OS is crap compared to iOS or android. People are realizing how much better all other smartphones are. RIM needs to wake the F up and stop focusing on going dual core when your OS is the biggest problem.
  

  16.12.2011 14:35 #8

• A5J4DX

  finally!
  

  16.12.2011 23:09 #9

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by xyqo: Those idiots have done everything to the letter from the text book "How to Ruin a Multi-Billion Dollar Company". How do people who were once so successful manage to tank this badly. Mike the Lizard is still there did he just become stupid one day or what? They were doing great when they had a monopoly...as soon as they got competition, things started falling apart. They move too slowly on their own and they react even slower. They are still doing things with the mindset that they have a monopoly, but the only thing they really have is blackberry messenger...and it isn't as secure as other messengers that are cross-platform.
  

  
  

  16.12.2011 23:13 #10

• llongtheD

  Originally posted by xyqo: Those idiots have done everything to the letter from the text book "How to Ruin a Multi-Billion Dollar Company". How do people who were once so successful manage to tank this badly. Mike the Lizard is still there did he just become stupid one day or what? Maybe it's easier to see them go under with a media blitz then banning them? Nobody b*tches if the company goes out of business, but a ban would raise ire. A lot of governments don't like RIM's encryption.
  

  If your fish seems sick, put it back in the water.

  18.12.2011 23:56 #11