BlackBerry 10 will fail and Samsung will pick up the pieces

RIM’s forthcoming BlackBerry 10 update could well be a flop, according to one US-based analyst, and lead to the company being acquired by Samsung.

Speaking to Canada’s Globe and Mail, Jefferies & Company analyst Peter Misek said that while BlackBerry 10 will be a massive improvement on previous releases from RIM, it still won’t be enough to bridge the gap between itself and current market-leaders Apple and Google.

Misek highlights two possible outcomes for RIM: licensing BlackBerry 10 to Samsung or a full-on buy out by Samsung of the entire company lock, stock and barrel.

Check out Paul Briden's hands-on review of BlackBerry 10

Samsung is interested in RIM, according to Misek, as it is currently in the process of ‘ramping up its internal OS development efforts.’ If an acquisition does take place, Misek points out, it won’t happen before the release of BlackBerry 10 – Samsung will no doubt want to see what it’s capable of first.

Misek doesn’t really have any facts to back up his claims, however, preferring to deal in speculation and conjecture. He also missed the fact that not only was Samsung an official launch partner of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 platform, but it also has a lot of time and money invested in Tizen – an open source platform that could one day rival Android.

Misek then goes on to explain that BlackBerry 10 is ‘not as good as Apple’s newest operating system and only as good as the top Android offering,’ which is a bizarre statement in and of itself, particularly since he gives no explanation as to why this is the case. 

He also doesn’t know for sure that BlackBerry 10 could fail. RIM CEO Thorsten Heins has alluded to the possibility of RIM licensing BlackBerry 10 to manufacturers. Heins told investors, 'We don’t have the resources like a Microsoft; we have to place one bet and make it right; we don’t want to go for an intermediate step.'

Sounds like RIM is pretty open to exploring other options. Could we see BlackBerry 10 go the route of Windows Phone and Android? It'd be an interesting turn of events but one that could make a lot of business sense.

As predictions go we think this one’s pretty wide of the mark, although we will concede that a Samsung handset running a licensed version of BlackBerry 10 is certainly within the realms of plausibility. It would, for one, allow Samsung to tap into enterprise markets and that’s something the company has been looking to do for quite some time.

BlackBerry 10 is expected to debut aboard RIM’s next-generation range of handsets in Q1 of 2013.