The search marketing team is sad to see the continuing demise of the once great BlackBerry. Whereas Apple seems to design and manufacture devices for the cool people out there desperate for their products, BlackBerry is at the other end of the scale, about to see the end of the line.
Research in Motion (the Canadian company which owns BlackBerry) is thought to be up for sale and the latest news from the bunker is that up to 40% of their staff are about to get their marching orders.
We were big fans of the BlackBerry at clickmate. Once the phone of choice – it made you look in touch – it’s become a mere shadow of its former glory and it’s unlikely that the company will be sold as a complete entity. More than likely the powerful players in the smartphone sector will haggle over the company’s bones (namely its technologies and patents).
The media is reporting that huge numbers of jobs, in all departments, are about to go.
A BlackBerry spokesperson did their best to defend the beaches, saying: “We will not comment on rumours and speculation. As previously stated, we are in the second phase of our transformation plan. Organisational moves will continue to occur to ensure we have the right people in the right roles to drive new opportunities in mobile computing.”
Ironically, Blackberry has just launched a new smartphone, the Z30, but pundits reckon it won’t stop the rot.
It was much criticised about its delayed BlackBerry 10 operating system and despite it getting things back on track, the device has lost so much ground to competitors like Apple and Samsung, that it’s unlikely to survive as a stand-alone entity.