[berklon]

Another round of layoffs is needed and is a pretty standard move in the situation RIM is in.

Unfortunately, like most layoffs - this will hurt them publicity-wise. Many many people already have the impression that RIM is going bankrupt and are either leaving the BB brand or just ignoring it altogether when it's time to purchase a new phone. I've heard many chime that they won't purchase a BB because "the company won't be around much longer". These layoffs add more fuel to that fire to the general public's mind - and will do more to damage future sales.

What makes it worse is that RIM can't counter this bad publicity with a new product for at least 6 more months. It's hard for people not to believe that RIM is going under when they have no new products to release that can compete. RIM can't do anything to stop these rumours and general thoughts about the company - and they have no-one to blame but themselves.

[reeneebob]

The popularity of smartphones could be better revealed if they all don't get carrier subsidies. How many would actually pay $649 for an iphone?

A lot. I did...but I tend to buy outright and sell the old ones on eBay. iPhone is one of the only smartphones I regularly sell outright. The only other one I have sold outright recently is a curve to replace a customers 9900 that went through the lawn mower.


I got blisters on me fingers! from using Tapatalk.

[reeneebob]

Everyone knows that OS7 is at a dead end. Why would gaming companies want to make games for the past instead of the future? Secondly, read what gaming companies and their CEO's say about BB10. In one article, they ranked BB10 ahead of Android, and then followed by iOS in terms of power for the platform, making BB10 superior in gaming.

Like many others, I have no problems with my 9900 and battery life. I'm sorry you got one with bad battery life.

What bad media has there been about Windows Phone other than people saying it won't catch on? Every day, there is an article about RIM being dead or something else, so how has Windows Phone had a worse time?



How are they supposed to know when 4 carriers combined have 4 Windows Phones that not one rep will push over an iPhone/Android? The hardware is nothing more than decent. A single core processor, 512mb of RAM, a display that competes against 2 year old phones, and no memory card slot, stuck at 16gb for all. How is that WAY more than decent for a flagship phone?

As for the bricking issue, 7.1 has pretty much stopped the bricking. Have you stopped by that forum lately? Not too many bricking problems there anymore, outside of a few which happens with EVERY phone.

My intro level 710 outperforms both my iPhone (barely) and 9900 even with its 'meagre' specs. The screen display is clean and clear (and viewable in sunlight) - not as crisp as my retina display but infinitely more viewable than my 9900. Also it works in sunlight unlike my 9900 (no longer every time I use it outside so the last update seems I address it, but still the trackpad and screen become completely non responsive in bright sun 3 times out of 10). My 'underpowered' 710 is very, very smooth. And I can browse the market without lag or hourglass...something I can't do on my 9900. Five minutes of market browsing and I have to battery pull because I lock up.

ALL phones have strengths and weaknesses. BB 10 is looking promising. The best thing they've done in a loooong time is kill the OS. The OS is an albatross. The perfect example is wp7.5 - a beautiful, clean, simple interface that works more smoothly than OS 7 on higher powered handsets because it was designed properly.

And considering windows is moving to an Apple like 'all devices connected' ecosystem with the new windows builds for tablets and computers, I don't see wp7.5 going anywhere anytime soon.

I got blisters on me fingers! from using Tapatalk.

[polytope]

So who told you that development platforms for Android and iOS are inferior in any way?

Let me put it this way.

Developing for Android, iOS, PlayBook (and soon to be BB10) has its own pain. The question is: How much pain are you willing to endure? What is the ROI?

Android is absolutely painful for a part-time mobile freelancer like me. Last time I checked, fewer than 10% of Android devices out in the wild are on ICS. That means that I possibly can't target ICS and expect to have a high download count. So if I want to write an Angry Birds killer, I'd better support Froyo all the way up to ICS. Fragmentation like this is something that pushed me over the edge to abandon Android completely. It's not worth my time. Besides, Android users are generally believed to be unwilling to open their wallets.

iOS has a very stringent policy on what an app can do in the background. I, as a programmer, know what I am doing. I don't want to perform gymnastics in order to avoid having my app killed by the OS because I need to steal a few CPU cycles to do something nifty in the background. And of course there are so many iDevs, including 9-year-olds. It takes a lot more effort to make a mark in iWorld.

The advantages of developing for the PlayBook have been the following for me:
I can write in javascript using WebWorks, or C/C++ and Qt using the NDK. All these are highly transferrable skills. A Qt app can be deployed even on desktops, cross platform. Profiency in Objective-C just gets you Objective-C jobs. Java can perhaps get you java server-side jobs these days as java in mobile is pretty much dead.

I have already made more money from App World than I have on iTunes App Store. And I still haven't recovered the $99 I paid for the iTunes Connect fee this year through iTunes sale.

So unless you're doing mobile development full-time, it is more attractive to develop for BB10. The tools are great. There is zero fee. And you get decent exposure.

[_StephenBB81]

Gaming partners announcing games for BB10 (Q4 2012) that have already been released for competing platforms earlier in the year.
Notably, virtually none of those partners talked up any plans to release anything for the flagship OS7 devices despite the fact that that's the most potent hardware in RIM's current arsenal. So...we can expect more sales drops.

Games were Announced for BB10, so it is no wonder they are not out yet for BlackBerry, since BB10 isn't out,
BBOS7 is harder to develop for, is a declining platform for consumers in North America, and has far too many screen resolutions, and orientations to make it worth while backwards porting
of course there will be sales drops for RIM waiting for BB10 to drop, RIM knows it, any intelligent investor knows it.

This is of little significant interest to the consumer market. We all agree RIM's pretty much sitting pretty in the business/enterprise side of things. I'm not sure up to 0.5% of the smartphone buying populace factor in Mobile Fusion when they are buying their next smartphone.

The Mobile Fusion advantage isn't really a consumer choice, BUT it is a RIM strength, and RIM needs to focus on Strengths, RIM getting service revenue off of Enterprise iPhones, iPads, Androids, means more money in RIM's pockets, and more leverage in the Enterprise, it is the Enterprise that made RIM, and it is Enterprise changes in mentality that have hurt RIM the most, RIM needs to recapture that mind share, Mobile fusion is the start.

There are far more people worried that nothing RIM has right now can touch any 2012 Android or iOS device in specs.

So who told you that development platforms for Android and iOS are inferior in any way?

Nothing RIM has released publicly is spec comparable to the latest flagship devices for other manufacturers that's a given. and it is to be expected, RIM isn't launching anything of importance for North America until BB10,
and Game dev houses gave BB10 great credit for being amazing to develop for, also following developers on twitter you'll see many accolades for how much easier RIM has made it for BB10 development than their previous experience with Android market place, and in far fewer instances iOS

Yeah, the usual 'blame the media' excuse.
Was it the media that made RIM release the Torch 9800, an approx 650 Mhz device, low-res screen, meager RAM and no GPU in late 2010 as a flagship device?

Was it the media that made RIM to focus their recent developer event on BB10, painting a clear picture to all that the OS7 devices are basically now dead in the water?

Was it the media that took RIM servers down for a few days in 2011, providing pretty bad PR for RIM?

Was it the media that the PlayBook was rushed to the market without vital software?

That early reviews (rightly) panned the tablet for, ensuring unimpressive sales?

Was it the media that made RIM shove an anaemic battery in the Bold 9900/9930, providing abysmal battery life for loads of users?


This has no much to do with the media and more to do with RIM. Android gets savaged in the media once in a while due to malware issues. Apple will remember the media furore about 'antennagate' and recent claims of the ipad 3 heating up uncomfortably. Windows Phone has had a worse time in the media over the past 2 months than RIM.

RIM isn't without faults
Though RIM is under new management, and no one seems to want to address that, RIM of Yesterday doesn't have to be RIM of tomorrow.

But the Media certainly does like to Kick RIM when they are down, there isn't 2 days that someone isn't writing something about a plummeting stock price, and that RIM is dead, yet they keep kicking, lots of rehashes of the same drivel get posted over and over again.

People keep comparing OS's iOS, Android, BlackBerry, WP, and the Articles most often try and keep Apple in favourable lime light, and push RIM down, yes they are declining, but lets talk actual manufacturers not OS's

Apple was praised for becoming the top Laptop manufacturer in 2011 I believe, beating out HP, but nothing was said about OS market share, or computer market share in general, because it wouldn't be a good story,
RIM has the highest market share of Keyboard smartphones, but that isn't news everyone knows that, like Windows has the highest PC market share, it isn't news, lets not report it.

[the_sleuth]

Everyone hoping BBOS 10 will be a game changer are going to be disappointed for setting his/her expectations too high.

Smartphones are evolving from hardware and OS to platforms or ecosystems. Most consumers care about what the phone can do for them and how it fits their personal lives. Hardware & OS talk might be filler for media, blogs, forums and geeks, But HW & OS are secondary thoughts for consumers. What truly drives sales in N. America? It is the ecosystem and coolness factor of having the latest Android app or iPhone app.

[_StephenBB81]

Everyone hoping BBOS 10 will be a game changer are going to be disappointed for setting his/her expectations too high.

Smartphones are evolving from hardware and OS to platforms or ecosystems. Most consumers care about what the phone can do for them and how it fits their personal lives. Hardware & OS talk might be filler for media, blogs, forums and geeks, But HW & OS are secondary thoughts for consumers. What truly drives sales in N. America? It is the ecosystem and coolness factor of having the latest Android app or iPhone app.

While I agree that Hardware OS come after what the phone can do for "me" to most people, people also like something NEW, so that is where RIM can benefit, I think for RIM BB10 will be a game changer, for the industry it will just make them consumer relevant again.

assuming RIM does come through with their plans to find good partners for content

[the_sleuth]

Yes, BBOS 10 will be a game changer in public's perception of RIM and your needs. But, as you stated, unless RIM can coral some big partners in U.S. for content / ecosystem (i.e. Amazon, Google or Microsoft).

Or else, RIM's BlackBerry will an international brand, like Nokia, with less relevance in U.S.A. Ultimately, this is where the battle will be won or lost for feature phone users switching to a platform. The war is already won by Android and iOS. Or RIM will muddle along in countries like Venezuela, Brazil, Indonesia, and Middle East countries, to name a few...

[HabsSuck]

Typical blind fanboy response. Any ounce of truth is trolling, of course. RIM's "huge" user base will fade into nothing as people locked up to BB contracts become eligible to upgrade, their new roadmap and OS is irrelevant to everyone except BB fans, and all this trimming and reorganizing is just prolonging the inevitable. Do you really think that once BB10 launches all will be well suddenly? It will launch with a half baked ecosystem, which won't help it's laughing stock of a reputation among general consumers. It will once again be the third or fourth option which only appeals to a specific niche of the market. Get over it and quit calling out people who are able to speak honestly about the situation.

No one is denying RIM's accomplishments in attaining their user base. But their era is over, those users will soon transition to other platforms.

The only right thing you wrote is users will transition to other Platform, QNX platform!

[Dmett]

This is great news, I hope as many people get fired as possible.

I was unemployed for almost 10 months in 09 after the startup I worked for in Waterloo went bankrupt. I must have applied to about 15-20 developer positions at RIM, all of which I was qualified for, yet despite a bachelors in comp-sci plus over 4 years experience in Java and various J2EE technologies could not even get an interview. After 10 months when money started to run out I finally had to start applying to jobs in Toronto, and got an offer in only 3 weeks. But I would have preferred to stay in Waterloo. I know 4 people who work at RIM and one is fairly smart while the other 3 are dumber than a box of rocks. One guy who worked at my previous company who was one of the dumbest coworkers I ever had managed to get hired as a developer by RIM. He had a relative who worked there, that's probably why. Another girl I knew got a job there as a developer, she couldn't code her way out of a paper bag, but I guess the hiring manager must have thought she was hot. RIM hires mediocre developers, that's why their products are so bad. Qualified people don't even get an interview, while people who know somebody there get the job regardless of how mediocre they are. They are also incredibly biased toward U of W grads. If you got your bachelors in CS from UW it doesn't matter if you graduated with a C, you'll get hired ahead of someone who went to U of Ottawa and got an A. I think this is because a significant portion of hiring managers there are UW grads, and they prefer to hire their own people (UW CS grads believe they are far smarter than CS grads of other universities), and the cycle continues.

Watching them go down slowly and painfully is my revenge, and let me tell you, it is sweet!

[cgk]

Hum.. I see that Cnet and others are saying this is going to be closer to 6000 (36%) than 2000. I guess they will cut the majority from BB7 teams and that OS will enter stasis?

[_StephenBB81]

Hum.. I see that Cnet and others are saying this is going to be closer to 6000 (36%) than 2000. I guess they will cut the majority from BB7 teams and that OS will enter stasis?

I'd love if they had to give sources,

it goes from 2000-6000 people? that's a pretty large chunk of the company unless they are shutting down manufacturing facilities

[sinsin07]

This is great news, I hope as many people get fired as possible.

I was unemployed for almost 10 months in 09 after the startup I worked for in Waterloo went bankrupt. I must have applied to about 15-20 developer positions at RIM, all of which I was qualified for, yet despite a bachelors in comp-sci plus over 4 years experience in Java and various J2EE technologies could not even get an interview. After 10 months when money started to run out I finally had to start applying to jobs in Toronto, and got an offer in only 3 weeks. But I would have preferred to stay in Waterloo. I know 4 people who work at RIM and one is fairly smart while the other 3 are dumber than a box of rocks. One guy who worked at my previous company who was one of the dumbest coworkers I ever had managed to get hired as a developer by RIM. He had a relative who worked there, that's probably why. Another girl I knew got a job there as a developer, she couldn't code her way out of a paper bag, but I guess the hiring manager must have thought she was hot. RIM hires mediocre developers, that's why their products are so bad. Qualified people don't even get an interview, while people who know somebody there get the job regardless of how mediocre they are. They are also incredibly biased toward U of W grads. If you got your bachelors in CS from UW it doesn't matter if you graduated with a C, you'll get hired ahead of someone who went to U of Ottawa and got an A. I think this is because a significant portion of hiring managers there are UW grads, and they prefer to hire their own people (UW CS grads believe they are far smarter than CS grads of other universities), and the cycle continues.

Watching them go down slowly and painfully is my revenge, and let me tell you, it is sweet!

Bad Karma man.

Sometimes, a person's perceived efficiency is all in their mind.

[texazzpete]

Like many others, I have no problems with my 9900 and battery life. I'm sorry you got one with bad battery life.

One? This is my THIRD 9900. Battery life has been crappy in each and every one of them. I recognise many people don't have this issue but some of us suffer through this issue.

What bad media has there been about Windows Phone other than people saying it won't catch on? Every day, there is an article about RIM being dead or something else, so how has Windows Phone had a worse time?

I'm sorry, but do you even read tech blogs?! This comment plus your earlier comment on the Lumia 900 leads me to think you really don't.

The Lumia 900 launch issues (where less than 5% of sold devices had a software bug that killed data) was given massive coverage in sites like Engadget and TheVerge. Rumours of current WP7 devices not being upgradeable to WP8 were made into massive news items in practically every single gadget blog. The Nokia Q1 financials spawned loads of editorials and massive fanboy wars....how come you were oblivious to this?

How are they supposed to know when 4 carriers combined have 4 Windows Phones that not one rep will push over an iPhone/Android? .

Another comment that leads me to believe you don't follow up on tech news. AT&T SOLIDLY pushed the Lumia 900 in their stores, giving employees to carry and evangelize and joining Nokia to push the $100 credit promo.
AT&T reps were trained with the 900 and at least several 3rd party reports say the reps did pretty ok as far as pushing is concerned.

The hardware is nothing more than decent. A single core processor, 512mb of RAM, a display that competes against 2 year old phones, and no memory card slot, stuck at 16gb for all. How is that WAY more than decent for a flagship phone?

Excellent build quality, one of the best looking phones in the market...A single core processor that's clocked faster than any Blackberry phone in existence. An 800 x 480 display that's better than that in the Galaxy SII from 2011 (voted best phone of 2011 by many tech blogs)...and definitely higher resolution than the screen in my 9900.

It isn't the fastest phone out there, but build quality and looks push this past the 'just decent' point.

As for the bricking issue, 7.1 has pretty much stopped the bricking. Have you stopped by that forum lately? Not too many bricking problems there anymore, outside of a few which happens with EVERY phone.

Nice attempt to sidestep my points here. I'm not talking about the 'bricking' issue, i'm talking about RIM's failure to keep to their promise and release a tool to fix this issue. I'm happy OS 7.1 has helped reduce this occurrence but what happens to the phones my friends bought that got bricked last year on 7.0?

[cgk]

I'd love if they had to give sources,

it goes from 2000-6000 people? that's a pretty large chunk of the company unless they are shutting down manufacturing facilities

Come Friday, I guess we will know either way - If it does hit 6000 (I doubt it), maybe the projected drop-off of bb7 is worse than expected?

[_StephenBB81]

Come Friday, I guess we will know either way - If it does hit 6000 (I doubt it), maybe the projected drop-off of bb7 is worse than expected?

I suspect OS7 device sales to actually see a leveling off with the US government just approving them for upgrades at all levels, that's some 250k devices to upgrade to, in a market that I suspect 250k makes a significant % of sales in a quarter, and they have released some more low cost BB7 devices for other markets,

we wont see growth by all means but a leveling off rather than the last quarters trend of dropping shipment volumes.


IF they do drop 6000 employee's I really fear they are moving to more out sourcing than they should be, they need to keep control of things until BB10 launches, too much outsources you lose control of aspects of your business in the interest of a few dollars.

[inicophone]

With the greatest of respect to RIM, as I truly love the Blackberry and I believe it is an outstanding product. But this is about time.

Seriously, that amount of employees and the products from Mike & Jim? I can only say that I think some staff there is "look busy".

The BB Storm developers are still there according to that open letter from last year, and when Mike & Jim ran things it seemed like a lot of managers and vice presidents but very little doing. Again, the open letter seemed to declare that there is too much paperwork and bureauracy!

I really think Thorsten is cutting the staff to save money and in the long run make RIM better. These staff could all be something to do with BBOS and they are no longer needed. Let's see which departments are out.

Remember the 3 COO's? (Fair enough, Thorsten is now CEO and I love him!) You can't look busy forever.

[the_sleuth]

Well HP is cutting 27,000 employees because cash flow from operations is shrinking fast. For RIM, the size of the cuts will be determined also by cash flow from operations. If cash flow is trending downward and there is a risk of it shrinking fast in the next 3 quarters, then this round of cuts might not be the last.

With some estimates suggesting RIM’s share of the worldwide smart phone market could drop below 5 per cent this year, axing well over 10 per cent of the company’s global workforce of 16,500 is crucial, say analysts and investors.

“I think they need to come down to 12,000,” said activist investor Vic Alboini, president and CEO of Jaguar Financial, who agitated for the removal of former co-chairs and co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. Lazaridis is currently vice-chair; he and Balsillie stepped down in January as co-chairs and co-CEOs.

From here:
RIM expected to announce major layoffs this week - thestar.com

[_StephenBB81]

Why do people keep quoting that Vic Alboini guy? he's a failed CEO, and is press hungry.


Where does he get his magical number of 12000 people?

We need to see how RIM's cashflow is after this quarter, as they certainly weren't trending downward last quarter with cashflow, seeing available cash going up.

[ALToronto]

If Research In (Stalled) Motion is relying upon interns and co-op students to perform the work instead of full-time qualified staff, the senior management team might as well just outsource the work to some low-cost country with the same disastrous outcome. No offence to the students but reality is they lack real world experience nor the accumulated knowledge and wisdom necessary to deliver on time, on budget, and with the highest quality standards.

I hire U of W co-op interns, and for the most part, they are excellent employees. They're not yet jaded, they work hard, they care about the work they do, and the only newbie flaw they have is not knowing when to call a task done. They tend to continue working past the point where their efforts are adding value. 'Experienced' workers can do a lot worse.

I know interns who have worked for RIM. Those in CS and Systems Engineering write code or specs, students from other faculties usually assemble components. Mostly, these tasks are too dull or simple for educated permanent workers to do every day. Yes, they are a lower-cost source of labour, especially with the 30% tax credit. No, it's not unfair to permanent workers - by providing these interns with co-op employment, RIM is training its future permanent employees, and at least getting something back for the tens of millions of $$ it has given to the university over the years.

[sleepngbear]

I suspect OS7 device sales to actually see a leveling off with the US government just approving them for upgrades at all levels, that's some 250k devices to upgrade to, in a market that I suspect 250k makes a significant % of sales in a quarter, and they have released some more low cost BB7 devices for other markets,

we wont see growth by all means but a leveling off rather than the last quarters trend of dropping shipment volumes.


IF they do drop 6000 employee's I really fear they are moving to more out sourcing than they should be, they need to keep control of things until BB10 launches, too much outsources you lose control of aspects of your business in the interest of a few dollars.

Interesting point. But suppose they're planning on outsourcing the hardware manufacturing? With all the earlier chatter about possible partnerships (that have mostly quieted down), could be an interesting scenario if, say, a Samsung were to be building RIM-spec hardware, but with the greater economy of scale that a Samsung has over RIM. It may not be such a bad thing (for the business overall -- obviously it'd be tragic for those affected employees). All they need to worry about then is quality of the final product rather than the whole manufacturing process. RIM would remain in control of other critical business aspects such as marketing, sales, distribution, developer and carrier relations. And such a major strategic shift could be enough to reinvigorate the stock price now rather than waiting on the results of the BB10 release.

[the_sleuth]

Say what you want about Alboini but up to 4000 cuts could make sense if RIM outsources manufacturing more to third parties as alluded to in this analysis:

Analysis: RIM CEO's brave face masks limited options - Yahoo! Finance

Why do people keep quoting that Vic Alboini guy? he's a failed CEO, and is press hungry.


Where does he get his magical number of 12000 people?

We need to see how RIM's cashflow is after this quarter, as they certainly weren't trending downward last quarter with cashflow, seeing available cash going up.

[the_sleuth]

If RIM does outsource, more likely to be Foxconn, Celestica or other EMS like Acer conglomerate.

Interesting point. But suppose they're planning on outsourcing the hardware manufacturing? With all the earlier chatter about possible partnerships (that have mostly quieted down), could be an interesting scenario if, say, a Samsung were to be building RIM-spec hardware, but with the greater economy of scale that a Samsung has over RIM. It may not be such a bad thing (for the business overall -- obviously it'd be tragic for those affected employees). All they need to worry about then is quality of the final product rather than the whole manufacturing process. RIM would remain in control of other critical business aspects such as marketing, sales, distribution, developer and carrier relations. And such a major strategic shift could be enough to reinvigorate the stock price now rather than waiting on the results of the BB10 release.

This is perhaps what Heins alluded to when he sald, we can't do everything ourselves.

[_StephenBB81]

Say what you want about Alboini but up to 4000 cuts could make sense if RIM outsources manufacturing more to third parties as alluded to in this analysis:

Analysis: RIM CEO's brave face masks limited options - Yahoo! Finance

I don't deny it could happen

but Alboini is a p****

[sleepngbear]

If RIM does outsource, more likely to be Foxconn, Celestica or other EMS like Acer conglomerate.



This is perhaps what Heins alluded to when he sald, we can't do everything ourselves.

Oh God, please not Acer.