Research in Motion's announcement on Monday of intentions to lay off 2,000 employees, about 10 percent of its workforce, did nothing to inspire investors that the company can rebound from its current slump.

The company's stock price dropped $1.24, approximately 4.4 percent, after the announcement as most were looking for the Canadian-based company to do more than just cut expenses.

The company also announced the retirement of chief operating officer Don Morrison and that it'd split Morrison's former responsibilities into three separate roles. This move could further enrage investors, especially considering the heat shareholders have put on RIM to dump its current co-CEO management system.

Shareholders and analysts have recently put pressure on the company to ditch at least one of Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, but the company continues to stand behind its maligned executives.

Layoffs Won't Solve Shrinking Market Share Issue

The layoffs will save the company money, but does nothing to solve the company's lack of revenue stream issue. The company has seen its main line of products, the BlackBerry, continue to lose its market share to Google Android phones and Apple iPhones.

At one point BlackBerry was at the top of the smartphone market, but has continued to fall behind after the rise of touch screen phones. Apple announced recently that it had sold a record amount of iPhones, 20.3 million over three months, while RIM only sold 12.3 million Blackberrys over the March to May period.

Additionally, the company's attempt at a tablet computer was met with disappointed reactions. Apple's iPad continues to dominate the tablet market, while RIM's PlayBook hasn't made a major impact on the market. The company did just receive government certification for the PlayBook, but the potential sales impact doesn't figure to jumpstart the company.

The company also recently lost one of PlayBook's lead developers, Ryan Bidan, to rival Samsung.

Split Company in Two?

The RIM situation has gotten so bad that one analyst has called for the company to split in two.

RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky, who at one point was bullish on the company, thinks that RIM's chance of survival could hinge on whether the company splits in two. Abramsky thinks the company would be well-suited to split its well-regarded data services system from the rest of the company, but other analysts such as Jeffries & Co.'s Peter Misek think that can be accomplished without dividing the company.

The BlackBerry maker has seen its share of recent media criticism, in part due to an anonymous letter that got to the heart of some of RIM's most intimate problems.

The letter, penned by an anonymous high-ranking RIM official, explained a lack of confidence in where the company currently stood and detailed eight steps to potentially get the company back on track. Based on Monday's announcement, it appears RIM has largely ignored the well-thought out anonymous suggestions.

QNX or Bust?

The company has placed a lot of hope on its new QNX operating system, but has continued to see delays in releasing a QNX-backed phone into the market.

Misek and other analysts think that the QNX technology can help get the company back on the right path, but time could be running out. The longer the company waits to release the handsets, the more Android phones and iPhones will populate the market.

The buzz surrounding an iPhone 5 is already intense, while no one besides RIM shareholders seems to really be talking about its new QNX phones.

RIM seems to have slid into irrelevancy and might be too late to reverse the trend. Its hopes could reside squarely on the success of its new handsets and hope that some positive momentum can carry the company in other areas.

But one thing is for certain-dumping 2,000 employees isn't going to give the company any of the positive momentum it desperately craves.

Yet again RIM is in negative media spotlight and one of these days the company will not be able to withstand the bad press.

Unfortunately for RIM, that day could be right around the corner.

Iphone Smartphone Ipad Samsung