At this point, things can't look much worse for the much-delayed BlackBerry Bold. Network operator Orange in the U.K. has instructed employees to stop selling the device because of software issues.

This does not bode well for the Bold, which, at this point, appears to be boldly going nowhere. Orange sent an internal memo to its retail stores about the Bold that reads:

Following reports of software issues with the BlackBerry Bold handset across a variety of mobile operators, Orange has decided to act in the interest of its customers by suspending shipments of the device in the UK. We are currently awaiting feedback from RIM as to when an industry-wide fix for these issues will be in place, and expect this suspension to be an interim measure. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may cause you. BlackBerry/RIM are doing everything they can to resolve this issue and will be completing full testing and validation to ensure future handsets do not have any quality issues. This may take a couple of weeks so it's up to us to do what's best for our customers.

Eep.

Here we are, nearly five months after BlackBerry announced the Bold smartphone, and it still isn't for sale in the United States. RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis recently said that the Bold has been delayed in the United States due to continued testing with network operator AT&T. Perhaps AT&T is being more thorough in its testing than Orange and other operators were. Either way, for the device to be pulled from store shelves overseas -- and be kept from store shelves entirely in the U.S. -- is not a good sign for the Bold.

Whatever the problems are, there are plenty of RIM fans in the U.S. eagerly awaiting the Bold's arrival.