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While much of the news in the mobile phone industry is usually about mergers and new products, the rise of a new company or the influence of a new technology in smartphones, the days of excitement for the company Research In Motion may be behind them.  Despite having bold plans for the BlackBerry 10 operating system that RIM executives have been promoting as the product that will turn around the company’s cash flow problems, there have been signs that RIM may be too weak to survive until the BlackBerry 10’s release.

Research In Motion is a Canadian company and its BlackBerry mobile devices had a meteoric rise in the marketplace.  The band U2, a prominent early-adopter and endorser of the Apple iPod, defected from Apple’s advertising campaigns to endorse BlackBerry in 2009.  RIM even benefitted from Barack Obama frequently using his BlackBerry during his campaign and following his election to the presidency.  Despite the celebrity endorsements, RIM began to suffer a series of severe financial setbacks.  The market share of the BlackBerry took a hit when the Apple iPhone 4 was released and RIM found itself competing against an influx of new smartphones and tablet computers that consumers were using to replace their BlackBerry devices.

The news from RIM last week was more dire than even industry analysts expected.  Research In Motion has been following a two-pronged strategy for the last quarter.  The first priority has been to attempt to compete in the marketplace by creating a new BlackBerry device, the BlackBerry 10, that will revolutionize the PDA and smartphone market.  The release date for the BlackBerry 10 was pushed back in the past two Quarters and last week, RIM executives announced that it would not hit the market until 2013.  The other aspect of RIM’s strategy is to attempt to dominate in emerging markets with its older BlackBerry products.  RIM flooded India and the Middle East with low-cost tech that are already outdated in more developed markets.  That measure was intended as a stopgap to prevent the company from losing more money while the BlackBerry 10 was completed and RIM could start making money again.

That measure does not appear to be working.

For the Second Quarter, RIM lost U.S. customers and there was a lull in sales in significant European and Asian markets in advance of new products being introduced there.  BlackBerry hardware sales were down and revenue was down as well.  RIM stock continued to decline throughout its Quarter and as a result, Research In Motion is cutting almost a third of its workforce, 5000 jobs, as a cost-saving measure.

Research In Motion will spend the rest of 2012 trying to stay afloat by selling its older, existing tech in less-developed markets . . . and the United States.  Older BlackBerry products will compete against new Apple, Microsoft, and Android products, which begs the question: Will RIM even be around in 2013 to release the BlackBerry 10?

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