RIM May Cancel BlackBerry 10 Device

RIM has reportedly shelved the Milan, a device rumored as one of the first BlackBerry 10 devices that featured a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, due to a hardware related issue, according to N4BB.

The doomed life of the Milan played out in rumors picked up by several different websites, but if true, it's more bad news for RIM. The company is already holding off on launching its BlackBerry 10 phones due to an inability to incorporate native e-mail and BlackBerry Messenger functions, and now it appears hardware problems are plaguing the manufacturer as well.

Co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie pacified stockholders asking for change in 2011, telling them BlackBerry 10 phones would turn the company around. Now, Lazaridis and Balsillie are reportedly about to be ousted from the board, and there are no BlackBerry 10 phones in sight.

The CEOs at RIM have brought the company to the brink, and analysts are speculating whether the company should cut its losses and put itself up for sale. Despite RIM's recent failures, it still holds value due to the number of patents it has accrued from years of developing BlackBerry smartphones.

RIM is still holding out hope that its BlackBerry 10 smartphones can turn the company around and restore it to where it once was in the mobile market. The company will reportedly have a large presence at the Consumer Electronics Show next week, but if it fails to impress, investors' cries for a buyout will only grow louder.

CES is coming at the perfect time for RIM to shed some light on its bleak-looking future, but if it doesn't pull it off, the company may end up disappearing, just like the Milan.