RIMM
Latest
RIM announces Q1 earnings: $518 million net loss, 5,000 job cuts, BB10 not due until Q1 2013
The last quarter has been about as rough as they come for RIM, and it's now detailed just how things stacked up in terms of hard numbers. For the first quarter of its 2013 fiscal year, the company brought in $2.8 billion in revenue, down a full 33 percent from the prior quarter, while it reported a net loss of $518 million -- much worse than analysts were expecting. What's more, it's also announced that it's cutting an additional 5,000 jobs as part of its ongoing restructuring efforts, and that the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones now won't launch until sometime in the first quarter of the 2013 calendar year (that includes a QWERTY model launched in "close proximity" to the touchscreen-only device). As for why, RIM only went as far as to say that the integration of some key BlackBerry 10 features and the "associated large volume of code" has "proven to be more time consuming than anticipated." For his part, though, CEO Thorsten Heins says he remains "confident that the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones will provide a ground-breaking next generation smartphone user experience," and that he's "encouraged by the traction that the BlackBerry 10 platform is gaining with application developers and content partners." He further notes that the response to BB10 from key carrier partners has "been very positive." In terms of its existing devices, RIM reports that BlackBerry smartphone shipments (not sales) for the quarter totaled 7.8 million, while there were about 260,000 PlayBooks shipped -- on the company's earnings call, Heins noted that the total BlackBerry subscriber base now stands at 78 million. Not surprisingly, the company is warning of more bad news to come. It says it expects the "next several quarters to continue to be very challenging," with everything from the "increasing competitive environment," lower handset volumes, impact from the BlackBerry 10 delay, and the company's plans to "continue to aggressively drive sales of BlackBerry 7 handheld devices" expected to cut into its bottom line. In another bit of news, the company also announced that it has appointed Steve Zipperstein, Verizon's former General Counsel, as its new Chief Legal Officer. You can find the full earnings report at the source link below.
BlackBerry OS 4.2 ready for 8700 and 7310
We're game for salacious BlackBerry insider info just as much as anyone, so it was with great delight that a "high-level exec at RIM" leaked some info about an upcoming BlackBerry OS 4.2 upgrade (not pictured right) for that older 8700 or 7310. Here's a quick breakdown: BlackBerry Enterprise Server SP4 should be released in June, while BlackBerry OS 4.2 is apparently ready to roll from RIM's end for the 8700 and 7310 handsets -- it's just a question of when carriers will release it. And, oh yeah, BlackBerry OS version 5 is being touted for public release in 2007 or in early 2008 (we hope we can all wait that long) in harmony with its next-gen devices.
New BlackBerrys imminent for T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint?
BlackBerry fans on T-Mobile, raise your hands: the BlackBerry 8300 is reportedly headed to the fourth-largest US wireless carrier next month. Not to be left out, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel customers can also raise their collective BlackBerry hands since you all may be getting a CDMA rendition of the BlackBerry Pearl, also in May. RIM's been on a tear lately getting its hottest handsets out to both the GSM and CDMA camps, and this is yet another example. Apparently, there's plenty of RIM love to go around this lil' industry of ours.[Via Boy Genius Report, thanks Tarik]
"Missing Sync" for Mac OS X / BlackBerry about to hit shelves
Mac OS X aficionado? Check. RIM BlackBerry user? Check. Syncing a Mac and a BlackBerry? Not so fast -- until now. While RIM has had official syncing software available for years on the Windows platform, the faithful Mac crowd has once again been left behind. But, with Mac shipments upping the pace recently, perhaps hardware vendors will need to soon think again, eh? New "Missing Sync" software from Mark/Space is now available in a "public preview" format that allows Mac OS X users to synchronize data on their beloved Macs with their beloved BlackBerry smartphones -- with no unofficial hack needed. The solution uses a standard USB tethering cable and appears to be functional with many newer BlackBerry handsets, and owners of the BlackBerry Pearl and newer BlackBerry 8800 series handsets can even sync iPhoto albums and iTunes playlists. Although The Missing Sync isn't officially sanctioned RIM software, Mark/Space says that full release is expected by the end of March. You'll need Mac OS X version 10.4.8 and a BlackBerry handset running version 4.0 of RIM's BlackBerry OS.
