Research In Motion might place its bets on a single superphone running its next-generation BlackBerry 10, according to a Jan. 5 posting on the Boy Genius Report blog.
“The only phone RIM is working on bringing to market right now is the BlackBerry London,” read the blog, citing the ever-popular unnamed sources. “We have been told that RIM is currently shopping the London with carriers.” It also claimed the Canadian device maker had canceled another BlackBerry 10 smartphone, code-named Colt.
RIM is betting heavily that BlackBerry 10, supposedly due in the second half of 2012, will prove a tougher competitor in the increasingly crowded smartphone segment. RIM’s current BlackBerry devices have failed to prevent the company’s market share from sliding in the face of aggressive competition from Apple’s iPhone and the growing family of Google Android devices. A renewed push by Microsoft’s Windows Phone could also complicate the environment for RIM.
If accurate, RIM s single-device strategy isn’t that unusual. Apple has traditionally issued one new iPhone at a time, and other companies have pushed their marketing and development muscle behind a single hero smartphone. But it would be a change from RIM s recent strategy, which centered on a whole line of branded devices.
RIM is also prepping a major software update in February for its PlayBook tablet, which has suffered from anemic sales in comparison to Apple’s iPad. RIM executives publicly acknowledge the company is in something of a transition.
As part of that transition, RIM might end up dismissing co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie as co-chairmen of their company’s board, according to reports circulating widely online.
Barbara Stymiest is the figure being cited by Canadian publication the National Post as RIM’s potential next chairperson. The newspaper, which attributed that information to unnamed sources, described her as an independent director who joined RIM’s board in 2007.
To read the original eWeek article, click here: RIM’s BlackBerry 10 Might Pursue Single-Device Strategy: Report