RIM to focus on business users after £78.1m loss

Canadian manufacturer denies reports it is abandoning consumers

BlackBerry maker RIM made a Q4 loss of £78.1m ($125m) in the three months to 3 March and its new CEO has said that the Canadian company will now be refocusing on business customers.

After disappointing sales of its PlayBook tablet and smartphone offerings, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins told the media in a conference call yesterday that the company would be refocusing its efforts on the enterprise market.

The earnings report found that RIM had sold more than 500,000 PlayBooks in the quarter but this was offset by significant discounts that were offered in order to lure customers.

More worryingly for RIM was its BlackBerry shipment figures. Shipments of its most popular product dropped by a whopping 21 per cent from the previous quarter to 11.1 million units.

Although the company said it would refocus on the enterprise market, it has denied reports that it is pulling out of the consumer market altogether.

"The claim that RIM has said it will withdraw from the consumer market is wholly inaccurate. Whilst we announced plans to refocus our efforts on our core strengths, and on our enterprise customer base, we were very explicit that we will continue to build on our strengths to go after targeted consumer segments.

"We listed BlackBerry Messenger, as well as the security and manageability of our platform, amongst these strengths," said Patrick Spence, senior vice president and managing director, global sales and regional marketing.

This was reaffirmed by RIM's vice president of developer relations, Alec Saunders, on Twitter earlier today.

"@BlackBerry remarks were wrongly interpreted. We are not leaving the consumer market," he said.