Microsoft and RIM battle for third place, but is four a crowd?

RIM’s in dire straits; BlackBerry 10, the company’s would-be savior, has been pushed into 2013. Microsoft has yet to score a blockbuster Windows Phone. New global market share numbers published in recent days by IDC and Gartner still show no evidence that the industry can profitably support a third mobile ecosystem, much less a fourth. So which of these two next-gen platforms — both from mobile giants who’ve lost significant traction — can cement its status as a viable player over the long haul? For RIM, it seems that the window to parlay its two-odd decades of mobile computing experience into a new generation of products that can compete favorably against iOS and the world’s best Android devices may be closing.