Things aren’t looking too ripe for BlackBerry.Research In Motion’s VP of digital marketing and media Brian Wallace, has defected to smartphone rival Samsung in the US, who confirmed the move this week.
However, it is not known what role Wallace will take at the electronics giant.
The move couldnt come at a worse time for the Canadian BlackBerry makers who late last week announced it was planning to slash staff numbers after reporting poor sales of their flagship smartphone.RIM shares tumbled tumbled 15 percent to $30 following the news.
Samsung on the other hand are sitting pretty with their smartphones including its newly released fast as lightening 1.2GHz dual-core processor 4.3 inch touchscreen Galaxy S II on Gingerbread 2.3, which has proved a massive hit among consumers.
Galaxy II sold one million on its first month of sale in its native Korea alone and here in the Smarthouse HQ we are pretty much in awe too.
And Google’s OS is also tipped by several analysts including IDC to be the top mobile OS in the world by 2015, (believing almost half all consumers will be clutching an Android device) elbowing RIM into fourth place – down from second – and Apple accounting for less than one fifth (16.9%).
This is a major knock for one of the original darlings of the mobile industry in particular among business users although BlackBerry OS has been somewhat lacking in the innovation department in recent years.
One of its latest releases, the Bold 9780 on BlackBerry 6 OS, seems dated compared to the stream of touch devices for business users from the likes of HTC and Motorola’s Atrix.
(Personally, I love my BlackBerry but I cant help looking over my shoulder at my friends with touch screens and thinking it might be easier to handle than the QWERTY keyboard and also it doesn’t have Skype.)
RIM who are currently rolling out their PlayBook tablet in Australia said it shipped about 13.2 million BlackBerrys in the first quarter – somewhat worse than its late-April projection at the lower end 13.5-14.5 million range.
Shipments of the PlayBook, launched April 19, were about 500,000 units, better than the average estimate of 400,000 units from analysts.This is just the latest personel casualty the Ontario based maker has suffered.
Its chief marketing officer Keith Pardy left the company in February after two years, weeks before the PlayBook tablet launch in the US. Another VP, Paul Kalbflesich also recently left after 11 years.
RIM said last week it would begin a program to “streamline operations across the organisation” including headcount reductions.
