Earlier today Jonathan Geller put up a post on BGR.com that has seemingly garnered a lot of attention based on the number of tweets and emails I've received from CrackBerry readers who are a bent out of shape over it.
With information being brought forth from one of Geller's trusted sources, the post exclaims that BlackBerry 10 is a failure that won't be able to compete, that PlayBook OS 2.0 is a clear window into BlackBerry 10 (something I agree with - this has been known for a long time that things are evolving into one OS to rule tablet and phone), and that RIM's Founder and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis lied on the last week's conference call when putting LTE chipset availability into the spotlight as a primary reason for the launch of BlackBerry 10 phones being delayed until late 2012.
After reading the BGR post I reached out to Research In Motion to see if they would provide an official response to the story, which they did. Here's what RIM had to say in response:
"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 appreciate the interest in our future platform and we will continue to work hard to deliver that platform as soon as possible. At the same time, we also remain very excited with the success of our recently launched BlackBerry 7 smartphones and we believe these products offer a very compelling choice for both new customers and the almost 75 million BlackBerry users around the world."
That's a pretty clear statement from RIM on this one, so take it in and decide what you will. Look. I know a lot of RIM people. Heck, I know a lot of ex-RIM people too. Nobody I know denies the challenges RIM is facing from the competition and the difficulties they need to work through as they transition to a new mobile platform. But the revenue engine is still firing on BlackBerry 7 Smartphone sales, there are still a lot of SMART people working at the company and none of them want to be working for a company that's losing. 2012 is all about execution. RIM wants to win. Have faith. Afterall, it's almost Christmas!
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