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RIM Manufacturing Partner Pulls the Plug On BlackBerry Phones

Posted by samzenpus on from the one-step-closer-to-the-end dept.

zacharye writes "Toronto-based original device manufacturer Celestica on Monday announced that it will stop producing hardware for struggling mobile device vendor Research In Motion. Celestica stated that it will wind down manufacturing services related to BlackBerry devices over the next three to six months, and it expects restructuring charges to be less than $35 million."

16 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. So Sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The rise and downfall of RIM parallel's slashdot, myspace and others in many ways.
    The early leaders that never adapted and eventually get surpassed by better, smarter competitors. The desperate and late attempts to remain relevant only to just slowly fade into obscurity.

    Really sad.

    1. Re:So Sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The rise and downfall of RIM parallel's slashdot, myspace and others in many ways.

      You're still here... :-)

    2. Re:So Sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The rise and downfall of RIM parallel's slashdot, myspace and others in many ways.

      You're still here... :-)

      His point *exactly*.

  2. So what does this mean? by arketh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Are they the only manufacturer of Blackberry devices or are they just one of many?

    1. Re:So what does this mean? by mccdyl001 · · Score: 5, Informative

      From this Chicago Tribune article, it sounds like there were 4 major manufacturers and now there will be 3. Celestica apparently made the Blackberry Bold & Curve models, and the article seems to indicate that those models will be moved over to one of the other manufacturers.

    2. Re:So what does this mean? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, they're not.

      And - BGR has taken paticular interest in finding news about rim and turning into a negative thing. What manufacturer would intentionally stop building devices at contract volumes and rates? My bet is RIM pulled their business for some reason. In order words, this is a non-story that BGR is turning into a negative story about RIM.

      Ever since RIM gave all the other sites BB10 dev alpha devices and didn't give one to BGR, they've been running constant negative coverage.

    3. Re:So what does this mean? by BitZtream · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They pulled their business because NO ONE IS BUYING THE DEVICES.

      Whats difficult to understand here? No one buys these devices anymore, so they'll reducing the amount of manufacturing potential they have rather than keeping a production line ready and costing them to sit idle. This is just another part of the death spiral to everyone with their eyes open.

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
  3. RIM's got a 100-year supply anyway by swschrad · · Score: 4, Funny

    so this doesn't mean much.

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  4. If RIM were a passenger jet... by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 5, Funny

    The stick would be shaking and an artificial voice would be warning: "pull up, pull up".

    1. Re:If RIM were a passenger jet... by spire3661 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We dont want them to. We want them to suffer from their hubris and stupidity. Blackberry SUCKS. In the face of competition they thumbed their nose at their customer, instead of rising to meet the challenge. RIM deserves to die because they thought they could ride secure email until the end of the mobile revolution.

      --
      Good-bye
    2. Re:If RIM were a passenger jet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We dont want them to. We want them to suffer from their hubris and stupidity. Blackberry SUCKS. In the face of competition they thumbed their nose at their customer, instead of rising to meet the challenge. RIM deserves to die because they thought they could ride secure email until the end of the mobile revolution.

      That depends on your point of view. My employer is now contemplating the option of either banning personal phones for all employees and mandating Blackberry phones or forcing them to install some security suite on their personal phones that gives our MCSEs "complete control over all devices with company data" including the ability to brick then remotely. So if you are fond of a North Korea like IT infrastructure where all employees use phones and laptops that are under complete company control via some Active Directory like system and where the user is not blessed with admin rights the Blackberry ecosystem is heaven.

  5. Obviously... by IGnatius+T+Foobar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Clearly the decline of RIM is at the hands of Microsoft, whose Innovative(tm) Windows Phone brings consumers all of the Innovative(tm) features they've been looking for; once they had a taste of Innovative(tm) Windows Phone(tm) there was no further demand for Blackberry.

    It is rumored that Apple and Google also have products in this space but they are irrelevant.

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    1. Re:Obviously... by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, Informative

      Truth be told, it was MS who killed RIM. ActiveSync, the mobile syncing software used in Exchange and several other commercial mail servers, made BES unnecessary for a lot of companies. I know at my company only devices with ActiveSync support are used. We shut down our BES over a year ago and were glad to see it go.

      RIM should have had ActiveSync on BB devices as soon as it started to be popular, instead they kept wanting that BES licensing money and it led to their own demise.

  6. Re:RIM shut them down by ArhcAngel · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've never owned a BB but this huge negative PR event caused me to never care about this company, ever again.

    So you already didn't care about any of the other mobile phone manufacturers because their devices were already being snooped on because their devices didn't have encryption in the first place? It wasn't like RIM didn't fight against it. It's their security that has been their bread and butter since the beginning. If data is going through a BIS/BES not even RIM has the keys to decrypt the traffic.

    --
    "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
  7. RIM Executives... by DarthVain · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Hey, at least we're not Nokia!" :)

  8. I'd buy one of these ... if by Skapare · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... if it were fast enough, had enough RAM (4G) and storage (32G), and had a fully open architecture ... and priced $1 each.

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars