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BlackBerry is set to cut an undisclosed number of its 7,000 staff
Bloomberg reported BlackBerry is planning on cutting an undisclosed number of jobs on Tuesday.
"As BlackBerry moves into the next stage of its turnaround, we remain focused on driving efficiencies across our global workforce," Bloomberg quoted the BlackBerry spokesperson as saying. "As a result, some employees have been impacted."
Business Insider reached out to BlackBerry for confirmation of the layoffs and clarification of how many of the firm's 7,000 staff have been affected.
Agence France-Presse reported BlackBerry was planning on making cuts in May. The cuts are a part of a wider turnaround strategy designed to reduce BlackBerry's overhead costs.
BlackBerry CEO John Chen announced the turnaround strategy after taking over the role from ex-CEO, Thorsten Heins, in November 2013.
Professional phone leaker Evan Blass, known on Twitter as Evleaks, claimed that BlackBerry is planning on releasing an Android smartphone as a part of its turnaround strategy in July.
Despite BlackBerry's work, recent studies from analyst houses IDC and Gartner show the firm is still losing market share.
The IDC's Smartphone OS Market Share, Q1 2015 showed:
- Blackberry controls 0.3% of the smartphone market.
- In 2014 it controled 0.5% of the market, while in 2015 it had a more impressive 2.9% stake.
- This makes it the fourth most popular mobile operating system in the world and behind Microsoft Windows Phone, which controls 2.7% of the 2015 smartphone market.
- Both operating systems are radically behind iOS and Android, which control 18.3% and 78% of the 2015 smartphone market, respectively.
Gartner's stats were similarly negative and showed:
- BlackBerry controls 0.4% of the smartphone market.
- Above it Windows Phone controls 2.5%, while iOS and Android continue to rule the market, controlling 17.9% and 79.9%, respectively.
Business Insider has reached out to BlackBerry for comment.