Blackberry 10 reportedly delayed until March

An analyst has warned troubled enterprise smartphone maker Research In Motion is unlikely to launch its long-awaited new Blackberry 10 operating system before March next year.

Forbes, which sighted a copy of the analyst note, quoted investment banker Peter Misek as forecasting the extra two-month delay in the widely expected operating system update.

"That would mean no sales of the next generation phones in the February quarter," Misek reportedly said.

The Canadian firm has not given an official launch date for the new operating system, saying only it expected to see the first Blackberry 10 devices in the first quarter of 2013.

Misek said RIM may have had a "tough November quarter, with replenishment rates decreasing as channel partners are cautious on holding RIM inventory".

"We think the business uncertainty means parties are unlikely to acquire or license from RIM until BB10 launches,” he said.

The company's chief executive Thorsten Heins announced the new Blackberry 10 system in August this year, promising it would reverse the company's decline.

Since October last year, RIM's share price has dropped 68 percent, but Misek believed there is little chance of anyone buying the company in the near term.

For Blackberry 10 to be a success, Misek said RIM would have to convince large mobile device makers such as Samsung, Huawei and ZTE to license it.

The new OS is based on RIM's own QNX platform, which has some compatibility with the popular Android operating system. RIM showed off an early version of BB10 in London today.

Among the key features of BB10 are a fully button-less interface that's driven entirely by finger swipes, and dual-mode operation with Personal and Work partitioning.

RIM intends to launch two devices in March, one fully touch screen and one with a physical QWERTY keyboard.

Despite the late arrival of Blackberry 10, the company has opened its Blackberry App Store for applications targetting the new operating system. It is also dangling a $US10,000 ($A9,768) carrot in front of registered developers to entice them into writing Blackberry 10 apps.