Samsung is vehemently denying a report that claimed it considered an acquisition proposal to buy struggling mobile company Research in Motion.
The usually spot-on gadget blog Bgr.com reported yesterday that Samsung and RIM had been in such discussions, citing unnamed sources.
In a new interview with Reuters, though, Samsung spokesperson James Chung said the company has not even considered buying RIM, and in fact it is “not interested” at all in any kind of deal.
Chung confirmed that Samsung never approached RIM and RIM never approached Samsung about an acquisition.
Of course, RIM is becoming the poster child for what happens when you get too cocky and don’t realize the industry is shifting right under your feet.
At first the company seemed to be apathetic about the iPhone and Android, and when it did reveal a highly delayed software update in response, it was nothing more than a sleeker and slightly modified version of the archaic operating system that simply cannot compete with the likes of Google and Apple.
The company did finally earn some praise when it launched the Playbook, because of the new OS built from the ground up. However, the Playbook was still riddled with problems.
Nevertheless, it was a glimmer of hope, especially when RIM decided to bring the same platform to its Blackberyr smartphones. That was supposed to happen last month, but has since been pushed back to at least September of this year.
By then, Nokia’s partnership with Windows Phone will be in its maturity and the dominance of Android and iOS will only continue to grow on a global scale.
Until then, RIM has to rely on its existing Blackberry software, which still has roots that date back to the early 2000s. There is no room for a platform like that in today’s mobile climate.
