The company also announced its long-awaited new OS, BlackBerry 10, is delayed until Q1 2013, from a previous expected launch date of late this year. RIM said the integration of key features into BlackBerry 10, which requires a large amount of additional code, was taking longer than expected.
In an attempt to reverse the losses, RIM announced plans to cut another 5,000 jobs in order to save USD 1 billion in costs by the end of this fiscal year. Other elements of the restructuring include a reduction in the number of layers of management, reducing external manufacturing sites from ten to three, outsourcing global device repairs, more targeted sales and marketing, further outsourcing of non-core functions. This will lead to USD 355 million in restructuring charges this year, after USD 335 million in one-time charges in Q1 already, mainly to write down goodwill.
RIM said it expects to remain in the red in fiscal Q2, and the outlook will stay "challenging" in the next few quarters. CEO Thorsten Heins said the company is "aggressively working" with advisors on its strategic review and evaluating ways to "better leverage our assets". Further details on this were not announced.
The group still generated USD 710 million in operating cash flow in the quarter and finished the period with total cash of USD 2.2 billion. RIM also announced the appointment of Steve Zipperstein, former general counsel of Verizon Wireless, as its chief legal officer.
