RIM stock is down sharply in early trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Shares were off about 19 percent to $7.64 after the troubled BlackBerry maker reported a first quarter loss of more than half a billion dollars U.S. RIM is also cutting another 5000 jobs, which is about a third of its global workforce.
RIM is pushing back the launch of its BlackBerry 10 smartphone from late this year until early next year, missing the lucrative holiday shopping season. RIM chief executive Thorsten Heins says software integration is the issue. He says, “based on the current status of the software integration, it has become clear that the schedule we were working towards which would have the first BlackBerry smartphone out for this calendar year, is no longer realistic.”
RIM plans to push ahead with a complete revamp of the BlackBerry operating system.
