RIM looses another executive

Another senior executive has parted ways with Research In Motion. The said executive involved with the company’s move into “cloud-based” services, which adds to a string of high-level departures from the BlackBerry maker.

Jim Tobin, senior vice-president for software and business services, which reports directly to co-CEO Jim Balsillie, left the Canadian company months ago, RIM verified on Thursday in an email. It has never legitimately announced the exodus.

His exit further lessens a management team that has shake up a number of top executives in developer relations, sales, and marketing in current months.

The abrasion comes as the smartphone maker struggles in regaining its reasonable edge against Apple Inc’s iPhone and iPad and a slew of devices using Google’s Android software.

Some experts’ claims that RIM has habitually delayed the release of its new product, and once launched some of its devices have obtained poor reviews. Prior to this month, a global outage eliminated service for tens of millions of BlackBerry users from corner to corner of five continents.

In July RIM said it was reducing about 11 percent of its personnel since of falling sales and profit.

Tobin was accountable for the latest move by RIM into cloud services – that allows its enterprise customers in using servers hosted by RIM rather than on-site computers in handling email and other corporate data.

He also performed on a team, which developed BBM Music, a song-sharing service run on top of RIM’s trendy BlackBerry Messenger application, in addition to a wider push, in incorporating Messenger into third-party developer applications.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Tobin had also worked in product development at Comcast, and at Time Warner in a corporate technology role. He was an associate principal at consulting firm McKinsey,

RIM has separated ways with a string of prestigious employees in recent months, which includes chief marketing officer Keith Pardy and head of developer relations Tyler Lessard.

One of RIM’s three chief operating officers, Don Morrison, resigned in July following the time that he had taken a medical leave.

Two members of Pardy’s team later on later left for jobs with rival Samsung, whereas a member of Lessard’s developer outreach unit, Mike Kirkup, left in August.

An escalating chorus of investors and analysts are calling for a shake-up at the very top of the company, where co-founder Mike Lazaridis and long-time partner Jim Balsillie have the same roles as chief executives and chairmen of the board.

RIM’s shares have lost some 70 percent of their value ever since a peak around $70 accomplished in February. They were dealing 2.5 percent higher at $21.24 on the Nasdaq by early afternoon on Thursday.