“I don’t expect things to get much worse.”
On the surface, these words from Research in Motion (TSX: RIM) CEO Thorsten Heins to editors and reporters at the New York Times don’t seem designed to inspire much confidence amongst Blackberry diehards, never mind skeptical analysts and investors that have largely written off the Canadian smartphone manufacturer. Still, one has to hope that Heins is not proven lacking in imagination.
The topic of the Heins interview was, of course, BlackBerry 10, the new mobile OS that RIM is slated (after several delays) to launch next January and that many see as the (latest) make or break for a company that once pioneered the smartphone market but that has been unable to adopt to the consumerization model that has seen Google Android and Apple iOS come to dominate the market.
In fact, according to a report in ITBusiness.ca, analyst firm Gartner reported Wednesday that RIM’s share of worldwide mobile phone shipments in the third quarter by OS was just 5.3 per cent, well behind Android at 72.4 per cent and Apple at 13.9 per cent.
The Times reported the next Blackberry won’t feature significant hardware innovations, but seemed impressed with the software improvements the next generation BlackBerry 10 promises. Click here to read the full story.