RIM is focussed on two main objectives: saving the company $1 billion and delivering the new BlackBerry 10 OS in Q1 2013. Part of this plan is to receive guidance from JP Morgan Chase and RBC about how they can leverage their brand, plus cut 5,000 jobs. There’s been no official word on where the job cuts will be coming from, many of them have already been notified, but over in Ottawa employees are working overtime to produce the BB10 product.
According to the Ottawa Citizen RIM employees have been asked to limit their vacation, and in some cases work 6 days a week to bring the BlackBerry 10 OS to life. This will show certainly commitment to the company. RIM currently has about 1,600 employees in Ottawa. Apparently Ottawa is the “epicentre” of the BlackBerry 10 development, possibly because that’s where QNX is based (which currently powers the BlackBerry PlayBook).
The first BlackBerry 10 device will be an all touchscreen smartphone, followed by a physical QWERTY device. Thorsten Heins, RIM’s CEO, stated the reason for the delay of BlackBerry 10 was due to the amount of code required, not the quality of the OS. Heins noted that “RIM’s development team are relentlessly focussed on ensuring the quality and reliability of this platform. I will not deliver a product to the market that is not ready to meet the needs of our customers… there will be no compromise on this issue.”
Source: Ottawa Citizen
Via: CrackBerry
