BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen (Photo : Reuters)
Poor sales performance in recent years forced the Canadian smartphone company BlackBerry to cut its workforce down. The layoff is part of the company's restructuring plans.
BlackBerry did not state how many employees will be affected by the recent job cut. According to Mobile Syrup, BlackBerry will be slashing down employees in the company's devices division in various international offices.
According to Slash Gear, BlackBerry is focusing more on software and licensing revenues rather than relying the bulk of its profit on handset sales. Currently, the mobile market is dominated by Android and iOS devices. BlackBerry has been sitting idly on the third spot.
This is BlackBerry's first employee cut for 2015 and judging by the company's current financial situation and dwindling sales, experts say more job cuts will follow before the year will end. In August 2014, BlackBerry laid off more than 7,000 of its employee as the company finishes its restructuring process.
BlackBerry once dominated the smartphone industry through its devices focused on businesspersons. However, the rise of Apple's iPhone and the unprecedented popularity of Android devices has seriously caused BlackBerry's dominance to deteriorate over the years.
BlackBerry CEO John Chen started BlackBerry's restructuring plan when he was appointed head of the company in 2013. Chen said, "You will see in the coming months a significant ramping up in our customer-facing activities in sales and marketing."
Aside from the smartphone industry, BlackBerry is also investing on the Internet of Things in order to broaden its market. The company is scheduled to report its fiscal status for the first quarter of 2016 in June 23.
