RIM Calls Report of BlackBerry 10 Flaws 'Uninformed' (NewsFactor)

Struggling manufacturer Research In Motion is standing by its initial statement about the delayed release of BlackBerry 10, following a published report that the operating system is too flawed to release.

"RIM made a strategic decision to launch BlackBerry 10 devices with a new, LTE-based dual-core chip set architecture," the company said in an e-mail Thursday. "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."

RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said in an earnings call earlier this month that the release of BlackBerry 10 won't be ready in the first half of 2012 because dual-core, long-term evolution chipsets to give the devices 4G data speeds would not be available in time.

Trashed, Anonymously

However, Boy Genius Report, citing an unnamed source described as a high-level RIM employee, reported Thursday that the delay is because "RIM is simply pushing this out as long as they can for one reason, they don't have a working product yet."

BGR's source also said that looking at the current operating system used in RIM PlayBook tablets offers some insight into problems with e-mail and BlackBerry messaging that may affect phones using the upgrade, and that "there's no room for a fourth ecosystem" of independently developed apps after Apple's iOS, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.

But RIM said it "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. "

In other BlackBerry news, Comwave, which makes an application allowing free voice over Internet protocol long-distance calls to dozens of countries, announced a version for the platform.

The app had previously been available for Apple's iPhone, and a version for phones powered by Google's Android operating system was announced earlier in the week. After registering for the service at Comwave's Web site for an annual fee of $30, BlackBerry users can download the app for free from the BlackBerry App World and call people in 57 countries without long-distance charges.

'Cheaper Than Skype'

The service is not unlimited, though. It includes 250 minutes per month for one year. Both Comwave and RIM are based in Canada. The company also created the ePhone app for BlackBerry's PlayBook tablet. Comwave promises that its rates for overage are cheaper than video-calling service Skype.

"With consumers loving our iPhone and Android apps, a BlackBerry version was a natural progression," said Yuval Barzakay, president and CEO, in a press statement.

But while added VOIP capability may increase the appeal of BlackBerry devices at a time when they are losing ground to Android and iOS, analysts see a new operating system as Priority One.

"I don't think apps, no matter how popular, will help RIM in the short term," said J.D. Power and Associates wireless tech analyst Kirk Parsons. "They need an updated OS platform badly and the longer they wait the harder it will be to regain share."

In October, comScore said RIM dropped 5 percent in market share during the previous three months, to 19.7 percent of the market, as Android rose 5.6 points to lead with 43.7 percent.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111222/tc_nf/81495

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