All of those features made another debut last May when Research in Motion gave software developers prototypes of the BlackBerry 10 handsets, the model that may well decide that ailing brand’s fate.
The trouble for RIM, of course, is that the iPhone 5 will be in stores Sept. 21 while the much delayed BlackBerry 10 still doesn’t have an official arrival date. RIM promised it for early next year.
By then, Apple is unlikely to be the only competitor to spoil some of RIM’s BlackBerry 10 surprises. Windows Phone 8, which may upstage some of the new BlackBerry’s software features, is expected to be out shortly. New handsets that take advantage of some of Windows 8’s features will most likely appear in November. And the world of phones using Google’s Android operating system marches relentlessly on.
None of that necessarily means that BlackBerry 10 will be obsolete before anyone sees it. But the spoilers will significantly increase the pressure on RIM to come up with a compelling and novel product to distinguish the new BlackBerrys from their competition.
This summer, Apple’s sales of its current iPhone 4S softened because consumers were waiting for the iPhone 5 The extended delay of the BlackBerry 10, however, has created a much more severe problem for RIM, perhaps because its executives have repeatedly boasted that the new phones and their completely redeveloped operating system will be major advance on RIM’s current products.
Meanwhile, the decline of the once-prominent company continues. IDC reported this week that phones using the BlackBerry operating system, which once defined and dominated the smartphone category, accounted for only 4.8 percent of shipments during the second quarter of this year, down from 11.5 percent during the same period a year earlier.