RIM Manufacturing Partner Pulls the Plug On BlackBerry Phones

zacharye writes "Toronto-based original device manufacturer Celestica on Monday announced that it will stop producing hardware for struggling mobile device vendor Research In Motion. Celestica stated that it will wind down manufacturing services related to BlackBerry devices over the next three to six months, and it expects restructuring charges to be less than $35 million."

So what does this mean?

[arketh]

Are they the only manufacturer of Blackberry devices or are they just one of many?

Re:RIM shut them down

[ArhcAngel]

I've never owned a BB but this huge negative PR event caused me to never care about this company, ever again.

So you already didn't care about any of the other mobile phone manufacturers because their devices were already being snooped on because their devices didn't have encryption in the first place? It wasn't like RIM [slashdot.org] didn't fight [hexus.net] against it. It's their security that has been their bread and butter since the beginning. If data is going through a BIS/BES not even RIM has the keys to decrypt the traffic.

RIM and design analysis software

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

In 2008 a leading design analysis company (in stress, thermal and fluids) bought another leading design analysis company (in electronics). Combining their client lists they discovered RIM was the only fortune 100 (manufacturing) company that did not use their design analysis software. In retrospect it looks like they were not using any of their competitors either! Anyway finally that design analysis tool vendor probably got their goal of getting all fortune 100 manufacturers by kicking RIM out of that club!

Re:So Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm curious about the fall of Slashdot. Why do you think it has fallen?

Because of sites like Digg and Reddit? Trust me those sites are fads as can already been seen with Digg falling very far. True democratic moderation suck balls because the general public is made up of idiots. Slashdot's system of limited public trusted moderation is better (not perfect but better than letting any monkey with a keyboard press buttons). Eventually people realize how stupid systems like Digg and Reddit are and they leave.

Now Slashdot is more limited in reach because it tries to be a niche for geeks and I like it that way. I don't think it has fallen though (except for the crappy redesigns, I want the old 100% original Slashdot back).

Re:If RIM were a passenger jet...

[Anonymous Coward]

We dont want them to. We want them to suffer from their hubris and stupidity. Blackberry SUCKS. In the face of competition they thumbed their nose at their customer, instead of rising to meet the challenge. RIM deserves to die because they thought they could ride secure email until the end of the mobile revolution.

That depends on your point of view. My employer is now contemplating the option of either banning personal phones for all employees and mandating Blackberry phones or forcing them to install some security suite on their personal phones that gives our MCSEs "complete control over all devices with company data" including the ability to brick then remotely. So if you are fond of a North Korea like IT infrastructure where all employees use phones and laptops that are under complete company control via some Active Directory like system and where the user is not blessed with admin rights the Blackberry ecosystem is heaven.