Research in Motion’s long awaited BlackBerry 10 smartphones were unveiled today at a press conference in New York City today in what many believe is RIM’s last chance at survival in the smartphone industry.
New phones-new company
The two new BlackBerry 10 phones, named the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 will run exclusively on the proprietary BB10 operating system.
The Z10 has a touchscreen with a 4.2-inch 1280x768 display while the Q10 has the traditional keyboard and a smaller 3.1-inch display. Both phones will have 4G LTE functionality.
Thorsten Heins, CEO of RIM said the new launch represents a new beginning for his company:
"This is one of the biggest launches in our industry and today is not the finish line, it's the starting line.”
The BlackBerry phones will have over 70,000 applications available. A new feature on the smartphones will allow users to separate and switch their phone profiles from personal status to work status, and back. The “Balance” element will be welcomed by businesses so that their employees can carry just one phone instead of two to meet business and personal needs.
The big surprise was the announcement that RIM has dropped its present company name of “Research in Motion" and changed it simply to “BlackBerry." It will be trading under the NASDAQ symbol BBRY.
When and where
AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon will be announcing their prices and wireless plans for the BlackBerry Z10 phones today. Availability for the Z10 will start in March in the United States, February 5 in Canada, and the United Arab Emirates on February 10.
The Z10 will be ready for sale in the United Kingdom on Thursday. No price or sale date has been announced for the Q10 as of yet.
Via ABC News
Comments