Friday, June 29, 2012

BlackBerry 10 delayed until Q1 2013


BlackBerry 10 won't be arriving until 2013, and 5,000 more jobs cuts are expected

RIM has just announced its Q1 earnings report for BlackBerry - and with it comes even more bad news for the BlackBerry maker.

A net loss of $518 million and 5,000 job cuts has been reported. What's more, the next operating system from the firm, BlackBerry 10, is being delayed until Q1 2013, the company has admitted.

RIM didn't disclose exact reasoning for the delay, but said development of the operating system has 'proven to be more time consuming than anticipated', specifically mentioning the sheer amount of code.

CEO Thorsten Heins has one hell of a job on his hands, but he's certainly not giving up just yet. He is positive 'the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones will provide a ground-breaking next generation smartphone experience', adding that initial responses from partners 'has been very positive'.

Q1 sales saw 7.8 million BlackBerry smartphones and 260,000 PlayBook tablets shipped. The BlackBerry userbase sits at 78 million.

Heins knows times are hard and expects survival 'to be very challenging'. The absence of its keyboard and touchscreen-only BlackBerry 10 devices will only damage its position in 2012, and an 'increasingly competitive environment' thanks to Android, iOS and Windows Phone has done little to help.

Current rumours suggest RIM could be bought by Microsoft or its network infrastructure sold to a private equity firm.

With such a well known brand name and a loyal following, a delay to the next generation of BlackBerry smartphones isn't as bad as it might sound, especially when what we have seen is very positive. It's more a case of whether RIM's board of directors will let the company get as far as 2013.

source

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