The company is being squeezed by Apple, Google and Microsoft, all of which are wooing consumers and business users with upgrades to their phone operating systems.

One of the results of this has been a sharp drop in sales of new RIM devices. During the quarter, shipments of BlackBerry smartphones dropped by almost half to 7.8 million units.

With the BlackBerry 10 software delayed, RIM will now have to work harder convincing users that it's worth putting off the purchase of a new phone and sticking with BlackBerry until its software is ready.

"I am confident that the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones will provide a ground-breaking next-generation smartphone user experience," said Thorsten Heins, RIM's president and CEO, in a statement.

The IDG News Service