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RIM officials said the company plans to cut 5,000 jobs over the next eight months as the company attempts to save US$1-billion in costs. Although RIM would not say how many Canadian jobs will be lost, a spokesman for the company said the “majority” of the company’s 16,500 employees are located in Waterloo.

“I understand this is an incredibly difficult message to deliver, but it is necessary,” Mr. Heins said on a conference call with investors Thursday evening.

“I fully understand the impact a workforce reduction of this size has on our employees and the communities in which we operate. I assure you that we wouldn’t move forward with a change of this size if we didn’t think it was critical for our future.”

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RIM has faced heated criticism for the way it has delayed the launch of phones running on BlackBerry 10 (BB10), the company’s new operating system software. The first BlackBerrys to run on BB10 were originally expected to launch in the first half of this year, but were delayed until the fall because of a problem with microchips used in the production of the devices.

Mr. Heins said he now expects the next several quarters to be “very challenging” for the company as it awaits the launch of the first BB10 smartphones, which he said won’t be ready until the first quarter of 2013.

On Thursday, RIM reported financial results that were far below the expectations of investors on Wall Street and Bay Street. RIM said its losses for the past three months totalled nearly US$200-million and that it expects to see another loss later this summer.