Research in Motion's head of developer relations Mike Kirkup resigned, marking the latest in a string of departures for the struggling company.
Kirkup, long a force in RIM's outreach to developers, made the announcement on his personal blog yesterday.
"The mobile space continues to change so quickly and this seems like a great time to step back and consider my next steps," stated Kirkup.
The changing developments in the industry Kirkup references may include the recent and stunning news of Google's $12.5 billion bid for Motorola Mobility, Hewlett-Packard's announcement to scrap its WebOS, and Steve Jobs' resignation as Apple CEO.
In light of the flurry of change in the mobile industry, RIM, which dominated the mobile market with its BlackBerry smartphone line early-on, has lately trailed Apple and Google and is facing increasing pressure from other players. And much of the recent rash of bad news for the Waterloo, Ontario-based company' has been characterized by key personnel departures.
RIM's head of marketing Keith Pardy departed this past Feburary, just before the company's much-hyped, ill-reviewed tablet, the PlayBook debuted. Just a few month's later, RIM shelved the tablet, deciding to focus on its new operating software and "super" smartphones.
Pardy's resignation was followed by that of RIM's vice president of digital marketing and media, Brian Wallace, who left the BlackBerry maker in June to join Samsung.
Wallace's departure coincided with the company's first quarterly drop in sales since 2005 and amidst reports its profits fall 10 percent from the previous year. The news prompted the company to slash about 11 percent of its workforce and continue reshuffling.
Recently, increasing sales figures from BlackBerry's new smartphone hardware and improved 7 OS platform have fueled an uptick in profits, prompting a 38 percent increase in RIM's stock over the past three weeks and giving the company a small ray of sunshine in a otherwise gloomy season.
Still, with RIM just beginning to emerge from a major transition in an industry that seems to be turning upside down, the company will take whatever good news it can get as it adjusts to the news of yet another managerial departure.
Losing its developer relations head, however, may be a blow as the company attempts to address the relative paucity of apps for its platform. With apps as a major consideration among many consumers when choosing a smartphone to buy, RIM must better encourage software makers to create for BlackBerry devices to keep apace. The QNX platform may be able to run Android apps, giving its users access to a wide range of apps, but the OS will need its own store to compete.
Kirkup had worked at RIM since 2001, after graduating from co-CEO Mike Lazaridis' alma mater, the University of Waterloo. He has not announced future plans as of yet.
