Banking crisis threatens phone makers

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 19 Sep 2008 at 10:43

Mobile phone makers are facing the possibility of losing thousands of their most profitable customers as financial havoc hits the global banking industry.

In worst case scenario 40,000 workers may lose their jobs in finance following Lehman's collapse and problems at other big financial firms, New York Governor David Paterson said earlier this week.

Analysts says the success of Blackberry-maker RIM is the most dependent on Wall Street's future.

The company, which sold 5.6 million Blackberries last quarter, has been able to successfully expand its customer base beyond Wall Street bankers in the last few years, but 40% of its new subscribers were still from large corporations in the last fiscal quarter.

"No matter how much economic challenge there is, how many people do you know that have given up their mobile?" says RIM's co-chief executive Jim Balsille.

"But there's clearly got to be a point where there is an impact. Macroeconomic factors have gotten all the more turbulent in the last week, and maybe it will come to that tipping point," he adds, declining to say if the company stood by its guidance for the second quarter and for the rest of the year.