Unless they work out a miracle in 2013, RIM's best bet is to get acquired. And actually they could be a good option for Oracle considering they plan to explore new enterprise avenues.
Given the current trends, taking into account that BB10 has been delayed yet again, and extrapolating that into even more obsolete phones which will sell even worse than they do now, it will be a miracle if RIM is not bankrupt within that timeframe.
Just look at the numbers. They can't afford to keep bleeding like they do now for that long. And they certainly can't afford the increased bleeding the lack of BB10 will cost them.
Six quarters is way too late. If noone has bought RIM within four, there will be no saving them.
Hard to see how that's a win for anyone except Ellison and his army of patent lawyers.
Oracle definitely has the money, patience and will to go against Android and iOS in the enterprise space. And BB does have a Java story which suits Oracle.
The question is whether Oracle needs to get into the mobile space. They could just as easily sell apps for iOS/Android or add better mobile front ends to their eBusiness Suite.
Users rule now, and users are consumers. They don't want to carry two devices, one for home, one for work. The home one being technically advanced.
The cost of the IT fortresses is prohibitive and it is now being understood that IT departments with overzealous IT security policies ruined the actual use cases of technology.
Example: Top15 big pharma co. BB as the corporate standard, fully locked down. PIN lock activates the sec the screen goes dark. PIN is a alphanumeric password. Camera, Browser - pretty much everything is disabled. Windows Notebooks? VPNs, rotating passwords, dongles, e-mail mailboxes of 500mb, no e-mail retention, etc.
IT argues that this makes them "compliant".
Then, suddenly, strangely coincidental with the rise of Apple post 2007 a big shift starts. SaaS solutions are starting to replace on-premise stuff, Big pharco has realized that their IT really sucks in terms of its job. The headcount, cost overhead is in no relation to the pain it causes. Everything is no, everything takes ages, when it arrives it is unusable.
And now we are at bring your own device. Whatever works. iPads everywhere. iOS takes care of security and OS updates. No more we can't update to WinXP SP3 because we're still testing it.
Just had a meeting with another big pharco yesterday, where BB is corporate standard. They are dropping that next month. iPhones are taking over. With far less control.
"Enterprise" for end-users is dead.