Member Article

Shares plunge at RIM

Shares of Research in Motion Ltd. plunged today after their first quarter results were worse than expected.

Research in Motion (RIM) whose european head office is in Berkshire, work with wireless technology revolutionising the mobile industry with the BlackBerry in 1999. With a popular line including BlackBerry smartphones, the BlackBerry Playbook tablet and software for businesses and accessories, many were surprised to hear that revenue was down 33% in the first quarter.

RIM’s first quarter fiscal 2013 report stated that the BlackBerry 10 smartphone has been delayed until the first quarter of 2013 and that the companies workforce will be reduced by around 5,000 employees, around 30%, in an effort to realise over $1 billion in cost savings based on their quarter 4 fiscal 2012 report.

In the report, the company state that the successful launch of the BlackBerry 10 platform is still their main priority and that the in recent weeks, their software development teams have made a large progress towards the development of key features for the new BlackBerry model.

Thorsten Heins, President and CEO at RIM said: “We are encouraged by the traction that the BlackBerry 10 platform is gaining with application developers and content partners following the successful BlackBerry Jam sessions that we have held around the world since the beginning of May”

BlackBerry 10 has been considered by many to be RIM’s make or break product and was originally due to be released in the first quarter of this year. With shares in the company down 16% on the Nasdaq Composite Index, BlackBerry 10 has already led to a 40% drop in the company’s stock price so far this year.

The company have stated that they expect to report an operating loss in the second quarter of fiscal 2013 as they continue to invest in marketing programmes and work towards the integration of BlackBerry 10.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Francesca Dent .