It’s a job for Axe Cop over at BlackBerry, as the struggling mobile device maker, which last year cut thousands of jobs, has once more dropped the unemployment axe on 250 more necks this week.
In a statement to AllThingsD, a BlackBerry spokesman confirmed that the company sacked 250 employees working at a Waterloo, Ontario, product-testing facility this past Tuesday.
“These employees were part of the New Product Testing Facility, a department that supports BlackBerry’s manufacturing and R&D efforts,” spokesman Alex Kinsella said. “This is part of the next stage of our turnaround plan to increase efficiencies and scale our company correctly for new opportunities in mobile computing.”
The layoffs follow a horrible first-quarter earnings report from BlackBerry, (they lost $84 million). The failing firm just can’t seem to get a toehold in the modern smartphone and tablet markets. BlackBerry cut about 5,000 jobs last year.
Following the rise of Apple’s IOS and Google’s Android operating systems, life has been a continual struggle for the Canadian firm. The company lost a half a billion dollars on its iPad “competitor,” the PlayBook, and now The Wall Street Journal is reporting the head of the division that released the ill-conceived device is now looking for greener pastures.
The release of the BlackBerry 10 operating system, and the two flagship devices that ran the OS were trumpeted as the company’s savior, finally bringing the company back to some sort of relevant position in the mobile device market. Sadly, the numbers for the new OS and its devices have proven disappointing, and Axe Cop continues to lurk in the shadows.
