BlackBerry maker will abandon most consumer markets after another $125M loss

Research in Motion Ltd, the maker of BlackBerry, seemed to admit defeat in the smartphone wars after suggesting it will abandon most consumer markets.

RIM will instead concentrate on reaching business customers, who are said to value the security of the company’s handsets.

RIM has been struggling as Americans are abandoning their BlackBerrys for flashier touch-screen phones such as Apple’s iPhone and models that run Google’s Android software.

Despite the phones’ continuing popularity among business users, RIM has had limited success trying to enter consumer markets in recent years.

“We plan to refocus on the enterprise business and capitalise on our leading position in this segment,” RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said.

“We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we tried to be everybody’s darling and all things to all people. Therefore, we plan to build on our strength.”

Yesterday RIM also announced that former co-CEO Jim Balsillie has resigned from its board.

David Yach, chief technology officer for software, and Jim Rowan, chief operating officer for global operations, are also leaving in a management shakeup.

Thorsten Heins made his remarks during a conference call after RIM announced quarterly results that fell short of Wall Street expectations.

RIM said it had a net loss in the latest quarter because of writedowns for the declining value of its brand and its PlayBook tablet inventory.

The net loss was $125 million, or 24 cents a share, in the quarter that ended on March 3. This compares with $934 million, or $1.78 per share, a year ago.

Adjusted income was 80 cents per share, a penny short of expectations from analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue fell 25 per cent to $4.2 billion from $5.6billion. Analysts were expecting $4.54 billion.