BlackBerry customers waiting for the next-generation operating system will have to wait several months longer, the company announced late last week. The news sent its already-depressed shares tumbling and caused analysts to sound the death knell for the smartphone maker.
In its quarterly report last week, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) announced that its new QNX operating system (BlackBerry OS 10) would be delayed until the latter part of 2012.
That operating system was supposed to be RIM’s holy grail in competing with smartphones running Google Android and Apple’s iPhone, which have taken market share from the BlackBerry in recent years.
BlackBerry 10
The new operating system BlackBerry 10 runs on the back of QNX, which was developed by QNX Software Systems. RIM acquired QNX last year and aspired to use it for all of its new products.
by BestBoyZ GmbH under CC-SA BlackBerry 10 made its debut earlier this year on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer. It has taken the company a long time to introduce smartphones.
So far, questionable features and weak sales have dogged the PlayBook. The tablet computer’s baffling lack of software to send e-mails was criticized by technology pundits at its introduction, and RIM said that the feature may not arrive until early 2012.
The three-day blackout earlier this month cast a dark shadow over RIM, but the BlackBerry manufacturer had been in trouble long before a server in Slough decided to take the day off.
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As recent as May 2010 BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) commanded more than 40 per cent of the US smartphone market, with Google’s Android sitting at less than 15 per cent; Apple accounted for 25 per cent.
Just one year later, in May 2011, RIM’s share of the US market had tumbled, from over 40 per cent to slightly below Apple at 25 per cent; during the same period Android had seen dramatic growth, climbing from below 15 per cent to almost 40 per cent.
In the aftermath of the London riots in August the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) network was partly blamed, as it was believed that rioters were coordinating attacks over the messaging system. Calls were made for BBM – and all mobile phone networks – to be shut down during times of national crisis. BlackBerry was asked to hand over data logs of messages sent over BBM – the company declined.
But it was the data outage starting on October 10 that caused ‘HMS BlackBerry’ to crash into the rocks. Users lost their data connection to RIM’s servers, meaning that internet and email could not be accessed, and BlackBerry Messenger could not be used.
