BlackBerry maker Research in Motion says it plans to go back to its roots and focus on corporate customers at the expense of consumer markets in a major strategic shake-up.
RIM has been struggling to compete with the surge of Android and Apple smartphones, and the move away from the consumer market follows a $125 million loss for its third financial quarter.
The decision is an admission of defeat in the consumer smartphone race, but new CEO Thorsten Heins said a turnaround required "substantial change" to boost the flagging company.
"We plan to refocus on the enterprise business and capitalise on our leading position in this segment," Heins said. "We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we tried to be everybody's darling and all things to all people. Therefore, we plan to build on our strength."
Heins said the company is well positioned in the corporate space and would soon release the BlackBerry 10 platform, but stressed "the business challenges we face over the next several quarters are significant and I am taking the necessary steps to address them".
The changes came alongside a management shake-up at the company, as the newly-installed Heins looked to make a mark.
RIM co-founder Jim Balsillie has resigned from the board, while chief technology officer David Yach will be retiring after 13 years. Jim Rowan, chief operating officer for global operations, has "decided to pursue other interests”.
Investor anger
Whether the planned changes can turn the company around remains to be seen, but investors and analysts remain deeply unhappy at the seemingly rapid decline in the company.
"They're going to scramble around now for the next three to six months and every poor shareholder that had faith in them is going to be potentially impoverished," Peter Misek, managing director at Jefferies and Company in New Jersey told the Reuters news agency. "I'm so angry as a Canadian; every Canadian investor should be angry."
"It's a disaster, the board should be ashamed of themselves, we told them three months ago to look at licensing the OS, opening up the system, to look at strategic alternatives, in fact, we told them before that, but they've been stubborn and they've had the ostrich treatment."
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