A prominent analyst has downgraded his rating of BlackBerry maker, RIM, and launched a scorching attack on the company.
Needham & Co analyst Charlie Wolf described RIM as a "one-trick pony" that has "no clue" how to respond to the advances made by its smartphone rivals.
Wolf claimed that RIM had spent a decade as "a one-trick pony, delivering the gold standard in messaging services,” but said that wasn't enough to successfully compete in today's smartphone market.
He also damned the BlackBerry operating system, claiming "RIM’s skills as a hardware manufacturer have been more than offset by it ineptness in software development, the focus of competition today.
"The blame must be laid at the feet of the company’s Co-CEOs who in their actions and words, appear to have no clue on how to mount a successful response.”
RIM was unable to comment on the remarks at the time of publication.
RIM released two new BlackBerry Bold handsets earlier this week, the 9900 and 9930, which use the new BlackBerry 7 OS. The handsets include support for Near Field Communications (NFC) - which allow users to make small, contactless payments using their handset - and support for augmented reality, which overlays useful information on what the customer's seeing through the phone's camera viewfinder.
RIM has also recently released the BlackBerry PlayBook, a tablet device aimed at business users.
This article originally appeared at pcpro.co.uk
