RIM: We're not pulling BlackBerry out of consumer market

RIM has moved to quash claims it's exiting the consumer smartphone business following comments from its CEO on a dismal earnings call.

Newly-anointed CEO Thorsten Heins claimed the company would focus on the business sector following its $125 million (£78 million) loss, but RIM has told TechRadar that this is only part of the story.

Patrick Spence, SVP and MD of global sales and regional marketing for RIM, said:

"The claim that RIM has said it will withdraw from the consumer market is wholly inaccurate.

"Whilst we announced plans to re-focus our efforts on our core strengths, and on our enterprise customer base, we were very explicit that we will continue to build on our strengths to go after targeted consumer segments.

"We listed BBM, as well as the security and manageability of our platform, amongst these strengths."

Twitter back up

Alec Saunders, VP of developer relations for RIM, backed up the comments on Twitter, stating: "@BlackBerry remarks were wrongly interpreted. We are not leaving the consumer market."

RIM also told TechRadar that the company planned to boost sales of its current crop of BlackBerry 7 smartphones by 'incentivising' sales of the range – which we hope means a drop in some of the eye-watering contract prices.

The firm stated it has new BB7 phones still on course to launch in 2012, and was still looking to bring a new wave of BlackBerry love to the market through its overhauled BlackBerry 10 operating system, although it did not give details on when the range would be launching.