Despite the fact that the struggling BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) is betting its survival on the next version of its BlackBerry smartphone, the company made a rather surprising announcement on Thursday, when it said that the launch of its new line BlackBerry handsets will be delayed until 2013.

The announcement, that its new BlackBerry smartphones will not be ready till next year, marks a critical setback for RIM, which is increasing losing its toehold in the highly competitive smartphone arena largely because its is competing with somewhat outdated handset technology.

The once-market-dominating RIM BlackBerry handsets have been steadily losing ground to the Apple iPhone and the ever-growing number of Android-based handsets; and RIM has staked its future on its new BlackBerry 10 lineup of smartphone, the release of which has already been delayed by the company more than once.

The latest announcement of the further delay in the launch of new BlackBerry 10 handsets till next year has apparently shaken the investors, who were hopeful that the new handsets would be released in time for the crucial holiday-shopping season this year.

With RIM already having a long history of missing deadlines and launching half-baked devices, the company's CEO Thorsten Heins - talking about the recently-announced delay in the launch of next BlackBerry version - said during a Thursday conference call with analysts: "I will not deliver a product to market that will not meet the needs of our customers."