The new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone. Photo: CFP

The privatization of Canada's BlackBerry - the company that put the country on the map as a smartphone leader when it was still Research In Motion (RIM) - could be put into the hands of Canadian insurance company Fairfax Financial.

BlackBerry said on September 23 that it had signed a letter of intent contemplating a transaction with the firm valued at nearly $4.7 billion. The news came on the heels of yet another worrisome round of financial results for BlackBerry on September 20, with the Waterloo-based company disclosing big revenue shortfalls and the confirmation of 4,500 job cuts.

"We believe this transaction will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry, its customers, carriers and employees," Prem Watsa, CEO of Fairfax, who is sometimes referred to as Canada's Warren Buffett, said in written statement.

Many industry watchers believe that the privatization of BlackBerry - if the offer goes through - could help breathe some life into the beaten smartphone company, though it is unlikely to provide a chance for the company to regroup and return to its former glory days in 2007, when RIM commanded a smartphone market value of $70 billion.

In a twist of events today, the sad state of the smartphone's cloudy future remains uncertain due to heavy hitting-rivals like Apple and Samsung, and even the loyalty of BlackBerry users in China is waning as the company struggles to pull itself together.

Net user Anaana in Shenzhen let out a sigh on her Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblog, on Wednesday, saying that "changing the fate of BlackBerry phones now seems impossible."

Despite BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins expressing an upbeat China market vision at a news conference in May, according to tech news portal tech.sina.com.cn, the company's newest gadgets powered by BlackBerry 10, its re-engineered mobile phone platform, have yet to be available in the colossal Chinese market, the world's largest for smartphones.

For 2013, the shipments of smartphones in China are forecast to reach 360 million, driven by telecom operators' subsidy policies and customers' strong demand for upgrading their handsets, US-based market research firm IDC said in a research report sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.

Murky future 

It is unclear at this time how a company restructuring would impact BlackBerry's China market and operations, and the company could not be reached for comment by press time.

But in mid-April, a source close to the company told the Global Times that the BlackBerry 10 lineup is expected to be on offer for customers in China before the end of the year.

But BlackBerry users in China who still want to get their hands on the company's latest gadgets without waiting that long may be able to secure their desired purchases online.

On taobao.com, the country's largest online marketplace, plenty of the newest BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 models were being sold by vendors this week. The transaction register of a Nanjing-based Taobao retailer showed Thursday that it had sold nearly 550 BlackBerry Z10 phones, the most among all Taobao retailers.

A Z10 buyer spoke highly of the new gadget, his third Blackberry, commenting on Taobao on September 15: "Unlike using the iPhone or some other hot-selling model, this phone really sets you apart from others."

There were high hopes the smartphone maker would make a market turnaround at the end of January, when it introduced the make-or-break BlackBerry 10 platform and hardware.

But even up until the pre-announcement for the company's financial disclosure on September 20, Heins said that, "Going forward, we plan to refocus our offering on our end-to-end solution of hardware, software and services for enterprises and the productive, professional end user," signaling a retreat from the mass consumer market.

And sales of the new devices, even weaker than expected, continue to slump morale, amid dampening spirits from market speculation on the cancellation of the new gizmos' China launch as well as layoffs in the company's China division.

Bryan Wang, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, said that a privatization of BlackBerry may, at best, offer the company a bit of wiggle room.

"But, it would be no more than a move to help the company divest its ailing smartphone business," he told the Global Times on Thursday. "Relief won't come from a simple refocus on the enterprise segment."

Unpredictable race

BlackBerry's seeking of a sale is the latest sign of an ever-tightening competition in the smartphone sector, which has seen once-kings - Motorola and Nokia - also scrambling to save themselves.

And in the Chinese market, where it could be anyone's game, it is difficult to predict who will come out on top. Even Apple's iPhone5 had a bit of a bumpy ride until its improved versions came out this month.

Apple's market share in China had fallen dramatically, weighed down by sluggish sales of the iPhone 5, but the launch of the new iPhone lineup is expected to "remarkably improve" company performance, James Yan, a senior analyst at IDC for China's mobile phone market, said in the Tuesday report.

Apple's new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C models were released on September 20, the first time for the Chinese mainland market to be included in the initial stage of a product launch by the company. Apple fans across the world bought 9 million of the phones within three days, the company said.

"The demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and while we've sold out of our initial supply of the iPhone 5S, stores continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly," Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, said in a statement announcing the results.

A breakdown of the sales figures by market is unknown, but Chinese mainland consumers are believed to have contributed to the record-breaking results.

"Although the record, in terms of sales, is in doubt, the Chinese market must have boosted the figure by way of shipments," said Forrester's Wang.

Market watchers both at home and abroad also remain skeptical of the 9 million sales figure, with many saying that a considerable number of the phones must still be in the hands of distributors.

Yet even if the market watchers are proven wrong, such an early success with the new iPhones does not secure anything for Apple in China's saturated smartphone market.

In the second quarter of the year, Chinese smartphone vendors seized four of the market's top five positions, while South Korea's Samsung held the No.1 spot, reported IDC.

That means BlackBerry is hardly the only one in trouble when it comes to increasingly stiff competition from Chinese smartphone makers.

Not to mention, "the sharp increase in shipments of low-end China Mobile smartphones, which has driven the growth of China's Lenovo and Coolpad," said Yan.

Wang added that the situation highlights that every foreign smartphone maker in the Chinese market - not just BlackBerry - will need to fight harder than ever to win over customers this year.

"There are just so many choices out there for consumers," he said.