All eyes in the tech world were on RIM yet again this year, and as before, not for a good reason. The ailing company was expected to release its long-overdue BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system, first called BBX, by early 2012. Then RIM pushed this back to the end of 2012. Hopes for the BlackBerry faithful were dashed a third time when the handset maker delayed both new software and phones to January 30 of 2013.
That's a long time to wait, both for consumers and business partners. Indeed, if RIM's plummeting stock price, dual-CEO resignations, and dwindling market share is any indication, the world has already condemned the BlackBerry to the same fate as the typewriter and mimeograph machine. Stay tuned though, because if RIM slips up again, chances are good that 2013 will be the year it finally gets rubbed out by Android and the iPhone.
For more on this story, see QWERTY BlackBerry 10 phone will launch before June.