Oh dear, things appear to be going from bad to worse for RIM’s BlackBerry platform. We’ve been giving readers news on the worsening situation for BlackBerry for some time and noted on numerous occasions that as far as a recovery is concerned everything seems to focused on the new BlackBerry 10 OS and devices running it. We now have news that the BlackBerry 10 OS is to be deferred until 2013 and wonder if this could be the final nail in the coffin for the once dominant platform.

In the last few months we’ve written many stories about the decline of BlackBerry, with poor sales and stockpiles reported. We’ve queried the strategy of placing all the company eggs in one basket so to speak, with everything seeming to be riding on the upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS and subsequent products using it. There was also news that the company may divide into two in a bid for recovery. BlackBerry 10 was due to be released in the fall, around September and with so much riding on it, the news that it will now be pushed back to Q1 in 2013 looks pretty bad and although our headline may sound pretty strong we do believe the delay really could be that significant.

There has been a lot of interest in the BlackBerry 10 OS and we recently told of a demo that received pretty favorable comments although it was using unfinished software so it was not enough to be able to judge the end-user experience. Then only a few days ago we gave details of the first BlackBerry smartphones that will launch on BlackBerry 10, the L-series and N-series. At that time it was thought that the L-series would release in early September and the N-series in the first quarter of 2013. News though that BlackBerry 10 will not be available until Q1, 2013 means that certainly the first of these handsets will also be delayed and possibly the second too.

The Verge reports on the delay of BlackBerry 10 with CEO Thorsten Heins announcing that a release this year was “no longer realistic” at the company’s earnings call. The project has already been in development for 18 months but it seems that RIM needs more time, which cannot be good news. Heins also stated that BlackBerry 10 is still very much the focus of the company and possibly in a bid to appease concerns he stressed that the delay was not due to “the design or features of the software.”

Previously RIM had said that the upcoming 10 OS required a “highly integrated dual-core LTE platform,” anticipated to be ready by the middle of this year so it could be that this is where the delay problems have arisen, although the reason was not confirmed. We’re interested to hear your thoughts on RIM’s ailing fortunes, made worse with the news of the delay of BlackBerry 10 OS.

Do you think our headline is too drastic, although things are not looking good? Maybe you agree that by the time RIM has its act together with its BlackBerry platform, it will be too little and far too late? Send your comments to let us now.