A new research note from ThinkEquity LLC Tuesday suggests that up to 70 percent of IT managers plan to replace their BlackBerry BlackBerry enterprise software in the next two years.

ThinkEquity analyst Mark McKechnie kept his "hold" rating on RIM shares, while cutting his target on the stock to $12 from $18 Tuesday morning, Barron's notes. The analyst found in an enterprise survey that 70 percent of the managers plan to replace their BlackBerry Exchange Server (BES) deployments in the next two years, with 50 percent planning to drop the mobile email software in the next 12 months.

Why this matters
Any move by IT departments to drop BlackBerry is bad news for RIM. The BES software is the bedrock of RIM's corporate foothold. This has been eroded by the iPhone and Android devices in the last few years and that process appears to be accelerating.

For more
Read up on RIM:

• RIM Hopes New OS Will Rewrite the PlayBook
• RIM Co-Chairman Shake-up Coming This Month
• RIM Blames Chipsets for BlackBerry 10 Delay
• RIM Plans a Q3 PlayBook Revival
• RIM Reports 27% Quarterly Profit Dive
• RIM Jams Android-Friendly Features Into BBX

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile