Research In Motion has reported a 12 percent sales decline for the BlackBerry maker’s latest business quarter, which ended in late May. RIM shipped approximately 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones and 500,000 PlayBook tablets in the quarter, but this wasn’t enough to reverse the sales slowdown the company first reported in April.
In response, RIM said, it intends to streamline operations, implement job cuts, and focus on accelerating a new slate of products. Earlier this month, RIM said it would launch the PlayBook in 16 more markets worldwide.
“We believe that with the new products scheduled for launch in the next few months and [by] realigning our cost structure, RIM will see strong profit growth in the latter part” of the company’s current business year, said RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie on Thursday.
Competitive Pressures
Wall Street financial analysts advised clients Friday that RIM’s problems shouldn’t be interpreted as a reflection of the broader smartphone market, which has been enjoying robust growth. “We estimate smartphone units to grow 37 percent year over year in calendar year 2011 and tablets to grow 222 percent year over year,” wrote Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Murphy in an e-mail on Friday.
For Apple, Piper Jaffray estimates iPhone sales to grow 66 percent year over year in 2011. Apple’s iPad shipments are also expected “to grow 114 percent” — although the comparison is limited “to a partial year of iPad sales in calendar year 2010,” Murphy noted.
The financial firm views RIM’s current problems as the result of strong competition from iPhone and Android devices. “Both Apple and the smartphone market have seen accelerating growth in the past two quarters, while RIM has lagged the market, with a significant downturn in the second quarter,” analysts Gene Munster and Andrew Murphy wrote in a new investor note.
A Long-Term Decline
As many industry analysts…
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