RIM’s quarterly report released late Thursday painted a stark and depressing picture of a former technology titan taking its last gasps of air.

The embattled smartphone manufacturer said it had lost $518 million this quarter, or 99-cents a share. The company says revenue dropped by 33 per cent from the last quarter, to $2.8-billion; BlackBerry shipments dropped to 7.8 million, from 13.2 million.

Because of RIM’s collapsing revenue, the company said it would be forced to axe 5,000 jobs – nearly a third of its workforce.

The company also announced that it was delaying Blackberry 10 until next year.

“I will not deliver a product to the market that is not ready to meet the needs of our customers,” RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said in a call with analysts.

“There will be no compromise on this issue.”

RIM is currently undergoing a strategic review but Mr. Heins would not divulge any details at this time.

“Now is not the time to share any detail,” he said. “It will be the board deciding what strategic direction they want to take the company.”

“This latest delay makes it increasingly unlikely that RIM in its current form will ever be able to make BlackBerry 10 fly,” independent technology analyst Carmi Levy said to The Globe and Mail.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if RIM as we know it morphs significantly into another form long before these new save-the-company devices are finally, belatedly released.”

Technology analyst Matthew Thornton of Avian Securities had a more sardonic view of the situation.

“It’s like watching a puppy die. It’s terrible,” he said to Reuters.

While the company is loosing money at a considerable rate RIM did say that its cash reserves grew in the reported quarter, to $2.2 billion from $2.1 billion.

Though the company is debt-free, the looming worry is that its shrinking margins and costs associated with launching Blackberry 10 would dangerously strain its finances.

Shares of RIM, which have lost nearly three quarters of their value in the last year, were down 14 percent at $7.86 in after-hours NASDAQ trading.