Perfection is a cruel mistress, particularly when you have to delay the possible saving grace of your company; in this instance referring to BlackBerry OS 10, which RIM now say won’t be ready until March 2013.
RIM have already stepped on consumer and industry toes alike following their initial announcement after the unveiling of BBOS 10 which had previously been anticipated to arrive sometime in October, this year. In a research note picked up by Forbes, Jefferies analyst, Peter Misek states, “We had hoped for a January launch but now see a March launch as more likely.” Who’s to say the delays stop here? The OS’s commercial debut looks to be slipping further and further into Q2 2013.
With a troubled time in the market over the past few years and more and more former BlackBerry users moving to alternatives such as Windows Phones, Android devices and iPhones, RIM needed to do something drastic to try and change the stakes in their favour. Their answer was a complete rethinking of their core operating system which culminated in BlackBerry OS 10 and a number of devices with which to carry it, starting with the L-Series.
Back at the end of April, when BlackBerry OS 10 was first unveiled, RIM’s CEO Thorsten Heins not only spoke of the potential of BB10, but expressed his confidences in what it meant for the Canadian manufacturer and the BlackBerry brand. Following talk of initial delays, Heins was then stated as making the successful launch of the first BlackBerry 10 device as “our top priority.”
Despite the fact that RIM aren’t happy to release BBOS 10 until it’s ready, there’s an increasingly smaller window within which they’ll be able to hold the market’s interest and anticipation.
Update: We’ve spoken to a BlackBerry spokesperson who stated: ‘We’ve always said Q1 2013 is when we’d launch and we’re sticking with that time frame.’
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