RIP RIM
Shares in Canadian manufacturer RIM went into a nosedive in New York today [30th January] as investors seemingly acted unfavourably towards the firm’s vital BlackBerry launch.
Within less than an hour after CEO Thorsten Heins took to the stage at a nearby venue, the company’s shares plunged nearly 8 per cent to just under $15 by midday.
As part of the new product launch, it was revealed that RIM would also be rebranding itself – in future, trading under the name of its once star phone, BlackBerry.
Meanwhile the firm’s online store is boasting a catalogue of more than 70,000 apps, though that’s far short of the hundreds of thousands of apps to be found in the respective stores of rivals Apple and Google.
Today’s launch of the BlackBerry 10 is seen by many commentators as the last role of the dice for the manufacturer, whose share price is now ten times lower than it was four years ago.
RIM – now BlackBerry – was poised to finish 2012 with 4.7 per cent of the global market, compared to almost 90 per cent for Apple and Android combined, according to IDC. The BlackBerry brand per se had an installed base of 79 million subscribers at the end of Q4, down from 80 million users three months previously.
