RIM Delaying BlackBerry 10 Devices Until 2013
On Thursday RIM said during its First Quarter Fiscal 2013 Results statement (pdf) that BlackBerry 10 devices will be delayed due to the amount of time it's taking to integrate key features into the platform. Now the company is looking at releasing BlackBerry 10 devices in the first calendar quarter of 2013 rather than by the end of the year.
The news arrives as the company reports tremendous losses and eliminates 5,000 jobs, or roughly 30-percent of its workforce. Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2013 was $2.8 billion, down 33-percent from $4.2 billion in the previous quarter, and down 43-percent from $4.9 billion in the same quarter of fiscal 2012. Approximately 59-percent of the revenue was generated from hardware, 36-percent for service and 5-percent for software and other revenue.
7.8 million BlackBerry smartphones and approximately 260,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets were shipped during the quarter, the company said.
"Our first quarter results reflect the market challenges I have outlined since my appointment as CEO at the end of January. I am not satisfied with these results and continue to work aggressively with all areas of the organization and the Board to implement meaningful changes to address the challenges, including a thoughtful realignment of resources and honing focus within the Company on areas that have the greatest opportunities," said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO.
Heins said the company's top priority going forward is the successful launch of its first BlackBerry 10 device. And while the company seemingly needs a product refresh in the near future, he said RIM will not compromise the product by delivering it before it is ready. "I am confident that the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones will provide a ground-breaking next generation smartphone user experience," he added.
The company said that over the past several weeks, RIM's software development teams have made major progress in the development of key features for the BlackBerry 10 platform. But the integration of these features and the associated large volume of code into the platform has proven to be more time consuming than anticipated, thus the delay.
"We are encouraged by the traction that the BlackBerry 10 platform is gaining with application developers and content partners following the successful BlackBerry Jam sessions that we have held around the world since the beginning of May," Heins said. "Similarly, the reception of the BlackBerry 10 platform by our key carrier partners has been very positive and they are looking forward to going to market with BlackBerry 10 smartphones in the first quarter of calendar 2013."
RIM on Thursday also announced the appointment of Steve Zipperstein, former General Counsel of Verizon Wireless, as its Chief Legal Officer.
....like i care.
It's hard to fathom just how badly they were managed to crash like this. The futures never looked worse and it's increasing exponentially every day.
RIP.
Think of this, if they rush their products to get it out asap, the the media will ben bitching about every flaw. The media is always anti RIM, and that causes them to loose buisness.
Not sure why ANYONE would buy them out. Google, microsoft and Apple have all the patents they need for their smart phones.
Perhaps RIM should put Android on their phones (with keyboards) and hope for the best... afterall, they are already running Android emulation to run those apps.
I'm not media, but I hate BB (of the past at least) based on my own experience with their crappy phones. But its still sad to see them die, but its their own fault. Commodore died back in the early 90s... they had a most power PC in the 80s, but they made their own failure doing what RIM does.
RIM rushed out their PLAYBOOK with an unfinished OS (as did HP) - took them a year to come out with a self-contained email and calendar program? how hard is that?
2013 is still a long way to go... like 5~6 months away.
I don't find BB phones are crappy. They might be not the most competitive in terms of feature, but it just works great and very practical.
When Apple were selling far less than that did reports claim that Apple were failure and dead?
Wow. I wonder if these reporters get paid by Apple or these are from the $500 million that Microsoft spared for Windows Phone marketing?
Anyway I think that RIM have really a problem: lack of focus! Here it is: "But the integration of these features and the associated large volume of code into the platform has proven to be more time consuming than anticipated, thus the delay."
How about ditching the useless Android player??? How about concentrating to bring high quality native API along with the HTML5 API or maybe the Adobe AIR and that's enough.
How about incremental improvements like Apple does!? They incoporate something completely useless or minor that others have for years and they taunt it like the biggest event since the Big Bang.
Are people appointed at high positions (in business and in politics) always such sweet talkers (with maybe zero abilities and brain)?
""Our first quarter results reflect the market challenges I have outlined since my appointment as CEO at the end of January. I am not satisfied with these results and continue to work aggressively with all areas of the organization and the Board to implement meaningful changes to address the challenges, including a thoughtful realignment of resources and honing focus within the Company on areas that have the greatest opportunities," said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO. "
What's that nonesense he says?
Of course thats becuase Global roaming voice and data charges are obscene......
But in an enterprise with a managed fleet such things arent easily avoided.
3 years to re-work QNX for their devices? With their Android player and such... they might as well have gone Android, make CUSTOM BB apps, custom launcher and turned it out in 6 months.
Android was 2 years+ in the making, Apple worked on iOS for multiple of years and Microsoft spent at least 1.5 years working on WP7. RIM is hoping to develop both BB10 and hardware in just 2.5 years. I think that's pretty damn good.
QNX was already a functional OS... their playbook came out 1.5 years ago... and about a year after they bought out QNX. (Does QNX still sell their OS to their previous customers?)
Considering where the industry *IS* today and where its going... BB10 is like DukeNukem Forever... always out-dated tech before it can come out.
The original iPhone came out just over 5 years ago. RIM should have had a re-written OS replacing their old stuff about 3 years ago... so at their current rate... they are 4 years behind by the time BB10 comes out - if ever in 2013. That *IS* the problem.
I played with the latest BB device at my at&t store because I said I would to be fair (yes, Pirks is a RIM fanboy). The construction and design of their phones is EXCELLENT. Using their current OS on their hardware was... a bit crumblesome. Its not horrible. I also played with the iPhone4, latest Android and WindowsPhones. Nothing felt as good as the BB... other than the iPhone (almost).
I think the HTC One X will be my replacement. Its not glossy plastic... no odd-edges.
But yeah, an Android BB Torch would be a sale without a 2nd thought.
RIM going Android is their only hope. When I used the Android HTC vs Sony vs Samsung vs Pantec vs LG.... they all had their own different looking Android Launchers, phone dial pads, contacts. Different themes. Different layouts.
NOTHING keeps RIM from making a sharp business like black-solid looking Android phone, throwing in their own custom patented apps. It would only take RIM a few weeks to get Android 4.x running on their latest hardware (in development).