No BlackBerry 10 smartphone for you until the beginning of 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.
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).