RIM CEO Thorstein Heis announced that his company’s swing for the fences, theBB10 platform and updated smartphone line up will be delayed until the 2013 calendar year late last month. The fact that RIM elected to use a strategy that relied on their in-house knowledge rather than collaborate with another player in the Smartphone industry is looking more and more like the incorrect choice. The Waterloo-based company, according to certain analysts could see their 10% of the Smartphone pie drop in half by the end of the year.
RIM, whose stock has evaporated in value by 75% in the past 10 months, also announced 6,000 job cuts in order to save $1 billion and offset overall quarterly losses of $518 million (USD). RIM employs 7,500 in their hometown as well as 16,000 plus worldwide.
The cuts come at a pivotal time for the company and their CEO, who replaced founders Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis at the beginning of the year. The company is exploring various strategic options, including a potential sale if that what is believed to be their best move. Another option the company was said to be considering was the splitting of its core competencies into two separate companies. This would separate the handset unit from the messaging business. Although the latter strategy is risky, it could potentially be a case of good timing for RIM.
The pace of innovation as well as an ever growing list of interested parties looking to introduce handsets including Amazon and Facebook would leave a growing list of potential suitors, which could include Microsoft lending a helping hand to the firm that was once so synonymous with Smartphones. A true sign to how the mighty can fall in business and technology.
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