THE DELAY: BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. says new phones deemed critical to the company’s future won’t be available until late 2012.
THE REASON: The company says it needs a highly integrated chipset that will not be available until mid-2012, so the company can now expect BlackBerry 10 phones to ship late in the year.
THE SIGNIFICANCE: Analysts say RIM’s future depends on the new software platform. RIM needs to come up with a compelling BlackBerry as U.S. users have moved on to flashier touch-screen phones such as Apple’s iPhone and various competing models that run Google’s Android software.
