Struggling smartphone maker Research in Motion is making headlines this week for its non-deal news, referring to reports that Nokia and Microsoft (News - Alert) have “flirted” with the idea of buying the Canadian-based company.

Citing “people familiar with the matter,” The Wall Street Journal said on Dec. 21 that the two tech companies “flirted“ with the idea of making a joint bid for RIM, and that the status of the talks remains unclear.

However, knowing that such conversations have occurred – even on an unofficial basis – highlights the level of weakness RIM’s position is in the market.

“The fact that the discussions took place, even informally, underscores the severity of the challenges facing RIM and the opportunity it presents to rivals,” the Journal said.

RIM said during its third quarter earnings call earlier this month that its new line of BlackBerry (News - Alert) smartphones that it hoped would turn around its low numbers will not come to fruition until late next year, The New York Times reported. On Dec. 15, RIM announced its third quarter net income fell 71 percent.

Although RIM rolled out nine new BlackBerrys this past Black Friday (News - Alert), the smartphone maker captured only 9 percent of smartphone market in the recent quarter, compared to a much higher 24 percent from a year ago, TMCnet reported.

When it comes to the RIM smartphone selection, the Bolds and the Torches “bring little new and exciting to a highly charged market,” InformationWeek added in a recent review.

Meanwhile, Nokia (News - Alert) is facing its own retail challenges with new Windows phones, reported TMCnet’s Ed Silverstein

“With no breakthrough innovation, we believe Nokia’s new phones are unlikely to get traction in a highly concentrated high-end,” Bernstein Research analyst Pierre Ferragu said in a note quoted by InformationWeek. “Second, we don’t believe Lumia phones are competitively priced. Third, we believe in economics of increasing returns for mobile ecosystems and judge rather unlikely that Windows can gain critical mass against Android (News - Alert) and iOS. Fourth, we have seen evidences of lack of traction for the Windows operating system over the last 12 months and challenge the idea that the Nokia brand can make a meaningful difference today.”