BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion has started the grim task of cutting jobs.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company says it's looking for at least one-billion-dollars in savings by the end of its 2013 financial year and job cuts are part of that plan.

Wedbush Securities analyst Scott Sutherland estimated that RIM could cut as many as three-thousand employees in its bid to reduce costs, which would top last year's cut of around two-thousand.

Sutherland says much is riding on a new line of BlackBerry phones powered by the BlackBerry 10 operating system, which are expected later this year.