LOS ANGELES — BlackBerry’s Research In Motion insists it’s not in a “death spiral,” but that isn’t stopping many companies from preparing — just in case.
Most analysts who have been following the Canadian smartphone maker don’t think the company will go out of business soon. Still, some companies that have relied on the BlackBerry for years are starting to hand out other smartphones to their employees.
Suffolk Construction Co. in Boston has been a RIM customer for more than a decade, but now it is looking to switch most of its 700 BlackBerry-equipped employees to iPhones by the end of the year.
“We had plans to move in that direction, and with the recent news that’s been out about RIM lately, we’ve accelerated our plans,” said Corren Collura, the company’s chief information officer.
Two years ago, BlackBerry devices accounted for nearly 42 percent of all smartphones in the U.S. That has fallen to barely over 11 percent as Apple and Android-based smartphone makers continued to roll out new features and apps.
Some companies began planning for a non-BlackBerry workforce after RIM announced last month that smartphone shipments dropped by nearly half in the first quarter and posted a worse-than-expected $518 million loss. The company also delayed the launch of its BlackBerry 10 line of phones and said it would lay off about a third of its staff as part of its $1 billion cost-saving plan.
RIM still has loads of cash — about $2 billion — and no debt, but analyst Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee said those strong financial numbers have done little to inspire confidence among its customers.
He estimates that the company’s cash may only last a year or two. “They could burn through that cash pretty quickly,” he said.
The lack of new smartphone offerings has been harmful to RIM, said Michael Holt, an analyst with Morningstar. He called the delay of BlackBerry 10 “almost inexcusable,” given the rate at which competitors are taking up market share. “If they fail to roll out compelling new devices quickly, they’re not going to survive,” he said.
