Three more senior executives have left BlackBerry Ltd. (TSE: BB) as restructuring at the Canadian smart phone maker continues.
The latest in the string of resignations and layoffs at the Waterloo, Ont.-based company involved the departure of: Doug Kozak, vice-president, corporate information technology operations; Carmine Arabia, senior vice-president, global manufacturing and supply chain; and Graeme Whittington, vice-president of service operations.
BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins
The news comes as IDC reported that BlackBerry’s market share dropped in the second quarter of this year to 2.9 per cent on sales of 6.8 million handsets, putting it in fourth place behind handsets running the Windows Phone operating system. A year ago BlackBerry held 4.9 per cent of the market. IDC notes that the company launched its BB 10 platform and three new handsets that use it this year. “It is still early days for the platform, however,” it adds, “and BlackBerry will need time and resources to evangelize more end users.”
The news from the U.S. isn’t good. Also on Wednesday comScore Inc. reported that BlackBerry lost almost 1 per cent of its market share between March and the end of June. It now holds 4.4 per cent of the smart phone market there. Android-based smart phones have 52 per cent of the market, while Apple iPhones hold 39 per cent.
The next insight into BlackBerry sales will come Sept. 27 with the release of its Q3 numbers. A spokesperson from the company confirmed the departure of the executives, saying BlackBerry is in the second phase of its “transformation plan.”
BlackBerry, released in Canada last week its new Q5 smart phone which joins the company’s Z10 and Q10 handsets. There are also reports that BlackBerry is poised to roll out another phone, named A10 or Z30, which will run on the BlackBerry OS version 10.2.
In late July, BlackBerry laid off 250 employees working in it product testing facility in Waterloo. Around that time, David J. Smith, executive vice-president of mobile computing, resigned from the company.
Prior to that, the company also confirmed that T.A. McCann, vice-president overseeing BlackBerry’s social networks and Marc Gingras who headed work on the BlackBerry 10 operating system’s calendar and contacts applications, had left the company.
Also that month, Richard Plasentin, United States managing director of BlackBerry, was fired over the lackluster launch of the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 handsets in the U.S.
All this is on top of the 5,000 BlackBerry workers who were laid off last year as part of the first phase of the restructuring plan.
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