Earlier this month, RIM revealed during an earnings call that its first BlackBerry 10 phones won't be arriving until later in 2012, placing the blame for the delay on the fact that the new dual-core chipsets that are planned for use in the devices won't be available until the middle of next year. According to one of BGR's "most trusted tipsters" (allegedly a RIM employee), though, there's actually a different reason for the delay. The tipster claims that RIM is pushing back the devices as long as it can because the company doesn't have a "working product" yet and that BlackBerry 10 in its current state is still missing features like email and BlackBerry Messenger.
RIM has now issued a response to the initial BGR report, describing it as "inaccurate and uninformed." The company reiterated its previous statement on the matter, saying that it wants to launch BlackBerry 10 devices with LTE-capable, dual-core chips, and that it won't release those products until the chips are ready. RIM's full statement:
“RIM made a strategic decision to launch BlackBerry 10 devices with a new, LTE-based dual core chip set architecture. As explained on our earnings call, the broad engineering impact of this decision and certain other factors significantly influenced the anticipated timing for the BlackBerry 10 devices. The anonymous claim suggesting otherwise is inaccurate and uninformed. As RIM has previously explained, and as Mike Lazaridis reiterated on the earnings call, we will not launch BlackBerry 10 devices until we know they are ready and we believe this new chip set architecture is required to deliver the world class user experience that our customers will expect. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply false.”
We may never know which side is telling the truth, but an All Things D source that's allegedly close to the company said that BGR's claims are "certainly plausible," describing RIM as a "train wreck" and the company's reasoning for the BlackBerry 10 delay as "a bit hollow." Whatever the reason for the delay actually is, RIM's BlackBerry 10 devices will be facing some stiff competition by the time that they finally make it to market, so hopefully the company uses the extra time to really polish both the hardware and software on its new products. Otherwise RIM may have to consider actually going through with one of those mergers that we heard about earlier this week.
Via BGR, All Things D
