OTTAWA — At their peak, just a few years ago, BlackBerry smartphones were symbols of corporate and political power. When President Obama took office he made keeping his BlackBerry a personal priority, and when BlackBerry service had a hiccup so did business on Wall Street.

But after being upstaged time and again by industry rivals, the devices may soon remain only in memories.

On Friday, BlackBerry announced that it would lay off 4,500 employees, or nearly 40 percent of its already reduced work force. The cut is so deep some analysts and investors said that the company’s days as a smartphone maker were effectively over.

The company also said that it expected to report a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion next week, mainly the result of a write-off of unsold BlackBerry phones, but also because of payments to stop manufacturers and suppliers from adding to the pile. And of its six phones that the company offers, two will be discontinued.

“This is a recognition that they lost the handset war,” said James H. Gellert, the chairman and chief executive of Rapid Ratings, an investment risk evaluation firm. “It’s certainly a waving of the big, white towel.”

The company halted the trading of its shares to make the bleak announcement. It also said that revenue was expected to have been $1.6 billion in the second quarter, almost half of the $3 billion analysts had anticipated. Sales of phones during that time, it said, totaled 3.7 million. Apple, by comparison, sold 31.2 million iPhones during its last quarter.

complete aricle
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/technology/blackberry-plans-to-cut-4500-jobs.html?_r=0

Dreamt it b4.