The layoffs are expected to happen on June 1st, which is one day before the company’s first quarter ending.

RIM introduces the BlackBerry Curve 9320 – A Stylish, New Smartphone for the Socially-Connected

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced a stylish new smartphone for socially-connected customers. The new BlackBerry® Curve™ 9320 smartphone features all the core BlackBerry messaging and social-centric features that keep people connected, and it offers global 3G connectivity backed by long battery life to allow users to make the most of their day.

“The new BlackBerry Curve 9320 is designed to make it incredibly easy for users to stay socially-connected,” said Carlo Chiarello, EVP, Smartphone Business at Research In Motion. “The new BlackBerry Curve 9320 will be especially popular with customers upgrading to a smartphone for the first time and existing Curve customers looking for a step up in speed and functionality.”

The BlackBerry Curve 9320 has everything a customer needs to stay in touch with the people and things that matter most to them. It features a dedicated BBM™ key, bringing the power of RIM’s popular mobile social network up in an instant, as well as the best keyboard in its class for quick and easy typing. It includes a built-in FM radio, allowing users to tune into their favorite local stations, and listening to the FM radio does not require a data plan or use data services. Designed to allow both 3G connectivity and long battery life, customers can get up to 7 hours of talk time or up to 30 hours of FM radio listening or music playback with headphones.

Customers can easily interact with their social network in real time, using preloaded apps for Facebook® and Twitter®. The new Social Feeds 2.0 app is also preloaded, allowing users to post updates to multiple social networks simultaneously and capture updates from news sources (RSS), social apps and instant messaging apps all in one consolidated view. The integrated camera includes a flash and supports video recording, and pictures can be tagged with their location thanks to the smartphone’s built-in GPS.

The BlackBerry Curve 9320 comes with the new BlackBerry® 7.1 OS, which supports features such as Mobile Hotspot and Wi-Fi® calling where available.* Parental Controls is a brand new, on-device feature that provides parents and guardians with simple options to help protect children by restricting access to specific functions, features and applications.

Pricing and availability of the BlackBerry Curve 9320 will be announced in conjunction with RIM’s distribution partners. For more information please visit: http://worldwide.blackberry.com/blackberrycurve/9220-9320

* Please check with your carrier for availability.

“Nokia had to file these actions to end the unauthorized use of our proprietary innovations and technologies, which have not been widely licensed,” stated Nokia chief legal officer Louise Pentland. The patents cover hardware capabilities including dual function antennas, multimode ratios, and power management. Software features include app stores, multitasking, conversational message display, data encryption, etc.

Nokia has about 10,000 patent families, making them one of the largest patent holders of all in the mobile industry.

Below is a statement from the company:

Nokia takes new steps to protect its innovations and intellectual property

Patent suits filed against HTC, RIM and Viewsonic in the US and Germany

Espoo, Finland – Nokia has filed claims in the United States and Germany alleging that products from HTC, RIM and Viewsonic infringe a number of Nokia patents.

“Nokia is a leader in many technologies needed for great mobile products,” said Louise Pentland, chief legal officer at Nokia. “We have already licensed our standards essential patents to more than 40 companies. Though we’d prefer to avoid litigation, Nokia had to file these actions to end the unauthorized use of our proprietary innovations and technologies, which have not been widely licensed.”

Nokia’s actions include a complaint to the US International Trade Commission (ITC) against HTC, suits against HTC and Viewsonic in the Federal District Court of Delaware, US, against HTC and RIM in the Regional Court in Dusseldorf, Germany and against all three companies in the Regional Courts in Mannheim and Munich, Germany. In total, 45 Nokia patents are in suit in one or more of the actions.

Nokia proprietary innovations protected by these patents are being used by the companies to enable hardware capabilities such as dual function antennas, power management and multimode radios, as well as to enhance software features including application stores, multitasking, navigation, conversational message display, dynamic menus, data encryption and retrieval of email attachments on a mobile device.

“Many of these inventions are fundamental to Nokia products,” Pentland concluded. “We’d rather that other companies respect our intellectual property and compete using their own innovations, but as these actions show, we will not tolerate the unauthorized use of our inventions.”

About Nokia
Nokia is a global leader in mobile communications whose products have become an integral part of the lives of people around the world. Every day, more than 1.3 billion people use their Nokia to capture and share experiences, access information, find their way or simply to speak to one another. Nokia’s technological and design innovations have made its brand one of the most recognized in the world.

During the last two decades, Nokia has invested over EUR 45 billion in research and development and built the wireless industry’s strongest and broadest IPR portfolio, with around 10,000 patent families. Nokia is a world leader in the development of handheld device and mobile communications technologies, which is also demonstrated by Nokia’s strong patent position.

Heins said that the company has designers working on BlackBerry 10. “We want to make sure we get it right,” said Heins. The final hardware and software will be coming later this year.

Some of the features of BlackBerry 10 include:
- Easy sliding gestures to switch apps.
- Everything runs real-time in the background.
- The touch-keyboard uses predictive algorithms. You can swipe down to go to different keyboard layouts.
- Autocorrect words are displayed next to the key that you naturally have to type next. When you swipe across the keyboard, you will see the words disappear.

RIM also showed BlackBerry 10 connected to a car. “This car in itself is a connected ecosystem. It has screens in the back for video conferencing or gaming. It’s all run by BB10,” stated RIM head of software portfolio Vivek Bhardwaj.

Carriers potentially saw value in the plan and the package would have included the RIM BlackBerry Messenger application. However RIM’s private network crashed last year, which would add a layer of risks that some carriers may not have wanted a part of.

RIM’s network is integrated with cellular networks around the world and it is managed by a string of data centers. RIM encrypts and compresses data and then pushes them out to BlackBerry devices.

RIM got as far as developing software to deliver the service to users on Apple and Android operating systems. They also studied the global potential of selling the service. Before that could take place, RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins and the board rejected Balsillie’s initiative to favor a focus on the next-generation of BlackBerry 10 phones due later in the year.

RIM’s market capitalization is over $7 billion so there are a few number of buyers at that price. Supposedly Microsoft and Nokia both explored a joint bid for RIM last year. If they had won the bid, most likely Microsoft would scrap the BlackBerry operating system and would integrate Windows Phone into the company.

Another option that worked for Motorola was putting their intellectual property up for sale. The limitation with that option is that the Canadian government requires that foreign companies demonstrate a “net benefit” to Canada in a big takeover deal.

RIM is also planning on getting rid of high level staff at RIM. RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said “we are undertaking a comprehensive review of strategic opportunities including partnerships and joint ventures, licensing, and other ways to leverage RIM’s assets and maximize value for our stakeholders.”

RIM is also laying off a bunch of high level staff. Sales and marketing teams are at risk as well. RIM shipped 11.1 million smartphones for the quarter.