Two executives who worked in on strategic areas at BlackBerry have left the company even as the phone maker continues to struggle to regain its dominance in the market.
T.A McCann, a vice president overseeing BlackBerry’s social networks and Marc Gingras who was heading the work on the BlackBerry 10 operating systems calendar and contacts applications, have left the Waterloo, Ont.-based company, according to reports filed by the Wall Street Journal.
McCann owned the contact-management company Gist, which was bought in 2011 by BlackBerry. After the acquisition he managed the development of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn applications for BlackBerry devices. McCann was also responsible for the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) messaging tool.
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Gingras is said to be the driving force behind the hub feature in the new BlackBerry 10 handsets. The Hub allows phone users to check their messages in one place without using other applications. His team was responsible for the calendar app on the PlayBook tablet. Gingras was with social calendar firm Tungle.me which BlackBerry purchased in 2011.
Sales of the new BlackBerry phones have been considered underwhelming in the United States. The company’s CEO, Thorsten Heins admitted recently that the release of its new handsets in the U.S. had been “flawed.”
At the company’s annual meeting with investors this week, Thorsten said BlackBerry needed more time to make a turnaround.