News suggests that IBM made an informal approach to Research In Motion (RIM) to buy BlackBerry e-mail and messaging service. After losing its market share to rivals like Apple and Google's Android system, will RIM have a second thought on IBM's proposal?

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More than a decade ago, RIM's first BlackBerry devices virtually invented the mobile e-mail service. A lot has changed since the last decade and with shrinking market share, the fortunes of the Canadian company, in the mobile handset industry, has sharply declined. "You can only view the handset division as in a death spiral," said Frank Marsala, an analyst at Gartner.

Before 2007, when Apple launched its first iPhone, BlackBerry devices accounted for one in every five mobiles sold. Along with stiff market competition RIM has suffered from a series of strategic and operational mistakes The mistakes include a daunting week-long Internet blackout throughout Europe and the Middle East in Oct. 2011. This blackout was caused due to a hardware glitch in Egham, Surrey. With RIM's failure to invest in its infrastructure, the company ended up projecting itself as a diminishing technology power.

"Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested. As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience and we will continue to keep you informed," stated a RIM spokesman, according to The Telegraph.

Even with all the misfortunes surrounding RIM, the software in its BlackBerry devices give IT departments control over the security of their company information by using strong encryption algorithms to confuse attempts of hackers. However, the increasing popularity of Apple and Google Android-based smartphones may present RIM with an opportunity to sell its high-security systems to other smartphone manufacturers.

Deal or no deal with IBM, BlackBerry still remains RIM's most valued asset.

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