Canada-based electronics manufacturing company Celestica has announced it will be winding down its manufacturing services for Research In motion (RIM), the company behind the Blackberry smartphone, in the next three to six months.
In the announcement, Celestica mentioned it expected the proposed winding down to cost it around US$ 35 million.
RIM is rumoured to have been Celestica’s largest single customer accounting for 19 percent of Celestica’s first quarter revenue.
Both RIM and Celestica didn’t provide any further information. Celestica however said: “More details about this announcement will be provided as part of the company’s second-quarter results press release and conference call, which are scheduled for Friday, July 27.”
RIM continues to suffer financially. According to RIM, it has approximately US$1 Billion worth of unsold inventory.
Even though in its earnings update earlier this year RIM mentioned a strategic focus change towards enterprise-related products and services, it denied claims it would be abandoning its consumer business.
The move further fuels the rumours that RIM’s Blackberry consumer handsets business is possibly facing closure or significant cutbacks that could also mean further massive job cuts for the Canadian based company.
Just like Nokia, which recently announced it would cut 10,000 jobs by the end of next year, RIM is only profitable and popular on one continent – Africa.
What this move also means for future product support is still unclear, especially for the millions of Africans with Blackberry handsets.
Headquartered in Toronto, Celestica specialises in global integrated end-to-end supply chain services for its customers in a myriad of industries including aerospace and defence, enterprise computing, green technology, consumer products and communications.
The company offers solutions including design, engineering, manufacturing and supply chain services for its customers.
