Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd., RIM’s sixth-largest shareholder, has sold half of its position. Stephen Jarislowsky, the company’s chairman, said there is just too much competition in the mobile market now. Because of that, smart phones have become a commodity, and he said it is hard for anyone to be a market leader with that type of product.
In the RIM parking lot, there is acknowledgment that RIM has had a couple of stumbles, that the two co-CEOs in charge of the company, though brilliant, have not exactly portrayed a unified image of a sleek, innovative company to the public. And the company has also failed to bring much new technology to market in the past year – with the exception of the Torch touch-screen phone, which has been a success, and the PlayBook. But the tablet device launched full of glitches and has largely been considered a disappointment.
For employees, it’s too early to tell where the axe may fall. “We’re still unsure,” said one RIM engineer.
But anxiety over RIM’s future ripples through the entire Kitchener-Waterloo area, which has blossomed into a technology hub, and organizations have benefited not only from close contact with RIM, but from the company’s generous donations.
No one in the thriving tech ecosystem around the region thinks the company is about to shrivel up and quit. Indeed, there may actually be some short-term benefit from RIM layoffs. There are about 2,000 unfilled tech jobs for developers and programmers in the region.
“We’re hiring another 100 developers, so if they slow down their hiring a little, we’re happy, to some degree,” says John Baker, president and CEO of Desire2Learn Inc., an e-learning company based out of an old industrial loft space in the area. “But there’s a lot of concern, for sure, in terms of their health as an organization.”
Brian Hurley also faces an internal conflict in his judgments on the RIM slowdown, Mr. Hurley’s Ottawa company, Purple Forge, develops smart-phone applications for third-party users. He has seen demand plummet for applications based on the BlackBerry smart phone, compared with those for the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android. In fact, the loss of the RIM platform would simplify his life.
Yet as a Canadian, he knows it would be terrible for the country. RIM, he says, is “the headwater” for a lot of Canadian innovation and company start-ups. Canada needs its large tech companies, and RIM is one of the last bastions.
With reports from Paul Waldie
