It seems RIM miscalculated badly the number of BlackBerry handsets it was going to sell. In fact, the company is apparently having to write-off $1billion worth of unsold devices.

Called a write-down, this is the third since December last year, which also resulted in disastrous quarterly financial results.

However, it seems that RIM – ever the optimistic company – is undeterred by this awful news.

Management called in bankers J P Morgan and the Bank of Canada to carry out a strategic review. In the meantime trading on the stock exchange has been suspended.

Thorsten Heins, RIM’s president and CEO, said in a statement that there would be what he described as “headcount reductions in some areas”. He added that RIM “will continue to spend and hire in key areas, such as those associated with the launch of BlackBerry 10, and those tied to the growth of our application developer community.”

RIM has had trouble for quite a while now but unlike Nokia, which similarly had problems, RIM just seems to going further downhill all the time. Management has tried to turn things around by ditching specific projects like PlayBook and concentrating on its original core business, but even here nothing is improving.

RIM’s management is optimistic that things can be turned round. Mr Heins added that performance would “continue to be challenging for the next few quarters.”

However, other analysts suggest that RIM needs to take a much harder look at what is wrong. One such expert believes the outfit is now playing catch-up with the likes of Apple, whereas it once led the way with innovative ideas.