It’s an undeniable fact of reality: Research In Motion is in trouble. Deep trouble. The BlackBerry maker has been having trouble for quite some time, and unfortunately, it looks like the company will further prove that point later today, according to most analysts. In fact, analyst Peter Misek (Jefferies) told AllThingsD in a recent interview that the earnings announcement is “going to be terrible with a scoop of worse.”
After the market closes, RIM, who is currently sporting its new BlackBerry 10 OS around via BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour with Tru in tow, will announce its fiscal first-quarter earnings, expected to be a net loss of 3 cents per share on $3.1 billion in revenue. Compared to one year ago, RIM posted a profit of $1.33 per share on nearly $5 billion in revenue. Since last year, the BlackBerry maker has lost 68 percent of its stock value. Since the beginning of this year alone, the company’s shares are down 37 percent. Those troubles, coupled with falling device sales and what seems to be a constantly changing web of confusion in management, have prompted many to wonder if it’s time for the company to sell.
Recently, rumors surfaced saying RIM might be splitting itself into two and selling its hardware business completely to focus on messaging and other services. Though those rumors were later shot down by RIM, Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair said earlier this week that his company doesn’t “believe that RIM has much to offer.”
“RIM finds itself in such a situation with an aging product line and nothing that appears able to change its fate in the pipeline,” Blair wrote recently in a note obtained by All Things Digital. “We see a steep drop off in revenues and units near term, punctuated by a drop in subscriber adds, and an OS refresh that is largely ignored by carriers and consumers alike, driving RIM into a forced sale in 2013.”
With Tru invested so heavily into BlackBerry 10 and its VoIP app for the platform amid these dire times, we can’t help but hope that they have some major investments in iOS, Android, and Windows Phone as well, just in case RIM does go the way of the dinosaur.