RIM to concentrate on business customers after poor revenue reports

BlackBerry maker RIM just announced its quarterly financial results and things are not looking good. The Canadian-based manufacturer is now looking at shifting its focus to businesses rather than consumers.

‘Some BlackBerry models are not selling as well as anticipated,' the company said in a statement to press.

RIM revealed its revenue has fallen by 25 per cent from $5.6 billion in the previous quarter to only $4.2 billion, analysts expected a drop but the results are well below forecasts of $4.54 billion.

BlackBerry phones gained a degree of popularity with consumers despite an earlier focus on business customers, but now it seems the brand has fallen by the wayside in favour of flashier Android and iPhone models.

The Telegraph reports that RIM shipped 11.1 million handsets in the quarter covered by the latest report, by comparison Apple sold 37 million iPhones in the final quarter of 2011, more than RIM's combined shipping for the last three quarters.

In a conference call following the release of the report, RIM's new chief executive, Thorsten Heins has reportedly not ruled out a sale of the company.

Speaking directly about plans for RIM, Heins explained it would shift its focus to business users:

‘We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we tried to be everybody's darling and all things to all people. Therefore, we plan to build on our strength.'

‘We plan to refocus on the enterprise business and capitalize on our leading position in this segment,' he added.

In short, there probably aren't going to be many more BlackBerry phones aimed at consumers.

The company also revealed that former co-CEO Jim Balsillie has resigned from its board.

Speaking to The Telegraph, BGC Partners analyst Olin Gillis commented on RIM's results:

‘The results are in line with expectations, which were weak already. But it's not just these results. The forward outlook continues to be bleak. Next quarter it's going to be more of the same. There's no sign of a turnaround.'

Update:

RIM has taken to Twitter to deny claims it is leaving the consumer market. Vice president of developer relations, Alec Saunders said:

'@BlackBerry remarks were wrongly interpreted. We are not leaving the consumer market'

Meanwhile, Pocket-lint spoke with RIM's managing director of regional sales and global marketing, Patrick Spence, who said:

'The claim that RIM has said it will withdraw from the consumer market is wholly inaccurate.'

'Whilst we announced plans to re-focus our efforts on our core strengths, and on our enterprise customer base, we were very explicit that we will continue to build on our strengths to go after targeted consumer segments,' he added, 'We listed BBM, as well as the security and manageability of our platform, amongst these strengths.'