RIM Monday morning described itself as swollen and said it would lay off 2,000 people, 11% of its staff.

The company said a few weeks ago that it would make cuts in an attempt to compete with the Apple and Android tablets and phones that are killing it.

Reductions are supposed to be across all functions with the first pink slips going out this week in North America and certain other countries.

It's the first time the Canadian company has even made layoffs. Now it's hoping to find the "highest growth opportunities."

As part of the restructuring, COO Don Morrison, who is on medical leave, is retiring and RIM is dividing the job naming Thorsten Heins COO, product and sales, responsible for all of the company's engineering functions, including hardware and software teams. The idea is to accelerate new product introductions.

Patrick Spence now managing director, global sales and regional marketing will report to Heins. They're supposed to get product development and business operations in sync and execute faster.

Jim Rowan is now COO, operations.

CIO Robin Bienfait has been made responsible for the Enterprise Business Unit, in other words service.

CTO David Yach is supposed to focus on current and future software platforms and the ecosystem.