AfterDawn: News

RIM denies it is leaving the consumer market

RIM has denied the multiple reports that it is planning to leave the consumer smartphone market.

Following horrendous earnings from the one-time powerful smartphone maker, speculation began that the company would move into enterprise and security, leaving the consumer market for good.



The Canadian company has said today that is not true: "The claim that RIM has said it will withdraw from the consumer market is wholly inaccurate," says Patrick Spence, RIM's managing director of Global Sales & Regional Marketing (via Pocket-lint)

"While we announced plans to re-focus our efforts on our core strengths, and on our enterprise customer base, we were very explicit that we will continue to build on our strengths to go after targeted consumer segments. We listed BBM, as well as the security and manageability of our platform, among these strengths."

The company recently revealed its Q4 2011 earnings, showing a huge dip to $4.2 billion in revenue and a loss of $125 million, down from a $1 billion profit in the same quarter in 2010.

Former Co-CEO Jim Balsillie, following the announcement, decided to resign from his only remaining position as a board member, and the company's CTO David Yach resigned, as well.

RIM is expected to reveal their first BlackBerry 10 devices over the summer.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 Mar 2012 0:17

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• 6 comments

• KillerBug

  It was pretty obvious anyway...leaving the consumer market would make sense...and when has RIM ever done anything that made sense?

  31.3.2012 11:42 #1

• Morreale

  I think if RIM partnered up with a company like Samsung, they could really start producing some worthwhile phones hardware-wise and make a comeback in the market...
  
  This is assuming that their latest phones still are "outdated", which I really hope isn't the case for their sake.

  31.3.2012 11:58 #2

• KillerBug

  RIM's latest phones are still outdated...terribly outdated as their new (still unreleased) phones should have come out last year, and will be insanely outdated when/if they actually get released. They were already having troubles keeping devs for a lot of reasons, but this delay has caused most of the best of the remaining ones to give up on RIM as well. Even if the hardware on the horizon wasn't terrible, and even if RIM fixed all the corporate structure problems that caused the first batch of devs to flee the ship, they would be launching a new device with no apps into a market that is already saturated with iOS and Android. Buying a new RIM would be dumber than buying a new Windows phone...even if the hardware was equal, which it won't be.
  
  RIM needs a total internal restructure. They can't compete with their current structure, and the only reasons they ever had success to begin with were virtual monopoly (distant memory), physical keyboards (many android devices have this), the notification light (almost every device has this), and secure email (gmail is now more secure). Their corporate structure keeps away the best people, slows down the people they do manage to keep, and alienates the app developers that are a vital part to the success of any mobile device. Bad hardware and operating systems are just symptoms of the real problems.
  

  
  

  31.3.2012 12:16 #3

• ishmael2

  There is no need for RIM to leave the consumer market. The consumer market has already left them! Over priced, under powered and minimal 3rd party support. RIM, RIP!

  5.4.2012 09:43 #4

• Morreale

  Originally posted by KillerBug: RIM's latest phones are still outdated...terribly outdated as their new (still unreleased) phones should have come out last year, and will be insanely outdated when/if they actually get released. They were already having troubles keeping devs for a lot of reasons, but this delay has caused most of the best of the remaining ones to give up on RIM as well. Even if the hardware on the horizon wasn't terrible, and even if RIM fixed all the corporate structure problems that caused the first batch of devs to flee the ship, they would be launching a new device with no apps into a market that is already saturated with iOS and Android. Buying a new RIM would be dumber than buying a new Windows phone...even if the hardware was equal, which it won't be.
  
  RIM needs a total internal restructure. They can't compete with their current structure, and the only reasons they ever had success to begin with were virtual monopoly (distant memory), physical keyboards (many android devices have this), the notification light (almost every device has this), and secure email (gmail is now more secure). Their corporate structure keeps away the best people, slows down the people they do manage to keep, and alienates the app developers that are a vital part to the success of any mobile device. Bad hardware and operating systems are just symptoms of the real problems. The new OS is supposed to be able to emulate Android apps no? Something the Playbook was supposed to launch with...
  

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  5.4.2012 12:15 #5

• kfir1

  Leave forever PLEASE!! ...

  5.4.2012 21:30 #6