Report: BlackBerry’s Best Hope Is Totally Screwed

Not even RIM’s top executives dispute that the company’s had a rough few months. But just hold on, they say, until BlackBerry 10. That’s the rudder that’ll turn this ship around. But if BGR’s insider report holds up, that new course might head right smack into an iceberg of suck.

BlackBerry 10 has already had a cursed feeling to it, with a legalistic name change and endless delays serving as bad tech omens. But news that BlackBerry 10 is in the same dismal state as PlayBook firmware — no native email, no BBM — indicates that RIM’s greatest hope isn’t just half-baked. It’s rancid.

To put this in even more terrifying perspective, BGR’s source claims that BB10 “isn’t even as good as iPhone OS 1.0 or Android 2.0.” Which, when you consider Windows Phone, puts RIM fourth in a two-platform race. If true — and honestly, I’d be more surprised if it weren’t — it confirms that uneasy feeling that we’ve been watching RIM’s Great unravelling, a slow bleed that’s picking up speed with every missed deadline, every disappointing release, and every anxious leak. [BGR]