A turnaround at Research In Motion (RIM) could take anywhere between three and five years as the firm struggles to compete with Apple’s iPhone and devices running on Google’s Android OS, according to the firm’s newest board member, Prem Watsa. He believes that anybody looking for a quick solution will be disappointed, with the firm’s new strategy of focusing on the enterprise and bringing out devices based on its operating system, BlackBerry 10 (BB10), likely to take time to implement. Even then, Watsa suggests that there is no guarantee the plans will work as rivals continue to pull ahead in the smartphone market.

“Is it going to turn around in three months, six months, nine months? No,” says Watsa. “Three or five years is how I'm looking at it. But there’s no guarantees. You’ve seen all the earnings from Apple. It’s not easy to compete with Apple or Samsung or the Android group of companies."

RIM shipped just 11.1m smartphones in its latest quarter and its sales are falling despite growth in the wider market, with Strategy Analytics pegging the global market at 143.5m in Q1, up 41% year on year. RIM’s sales pale in comparison to those of its rivals, with Apple shifting 35m iPhones and Samsung estimated to have sold 44.5m smartphones alone.

RIM is reportedly planning to unveil its first smartphones running on its new operating system, BlackBerry 10, in the summer, with the devices set to hit the market in autumn, according to blog N4BB. Its claims tie in with previous speculation from blog the Boy Genius Report, which reportedly got hold of RIM’s 2012 roadmap showing  that the first BB10 smartphone, codenamed the BlackBerry London, would launch in late September or early October.