Research In Motion will hold its BlackBerry 10 launch event on January 30th, 2013, the company said on Monday, betting its future on the success of the new line of products powered by the new mobile operating system.
The event will happen simultaneously in multiple countries around the world. This day will mark the official launch of its new platform - BlackBerry 10, as well as the unveiling of the first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones. RIM will unveil both a touchscreen and keyboard versions.
RIM has struggled over the last two years as its existing lineup has lost ground to smartphones like Apple Inc's iPhone and Samsung Electronics' Galaxy line.
"In building BlackBerry 10, we set out to create a truly unique mobile computing experience that constantly adapts to your needs. Our team has been working tirelessly to bring our customers innovative features combined with a best in class browser, a rich application ecosystem, and cutting-edge multimedia capabilities. All of this will be integrated into a user experience - the BlackBerry Flow - that is unlike any smartphone on the market today," said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of Research In Motion. "Thanks to our strong partnerships with global carriers and a growing ecosystem of developers, we believe our customers will have the best experience possible with BlackBerry 10. We are looking forward to getting BlackBerry 10 in the hands of our customers around the world."
RIM says BlackBerry 10 will offer a large catalog of applications from across the globe and across all categories, including Games, Productivity, Social, Lifestyle and Leisure, Multimedia and Published Content, as well as applications designed for business and enterprise use.
The BlackBerry 10 platform has recently achieved FIPS 140-2 certification, which means that government agencies will be able to deploy BlackBerry 10 smartphones and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 as soon as it is available. In addition, RIM recently announced that BlackBerry 10 smartphones have now entered more than 50 carrier labs with many more entries expected in the coming weeks.
Some key features of the new BlackBerry 10 devices already unveiled include:
BlackBerry Flow and BlackBerry Hub
BlackBerry Flow allows seamless navigation across open applications and the BlackBerry Hub. All messages, notifications, feeds, and calendar events come into the BlackBerry Hub and no matter what the user is doing with the device, with a simple gesture, they can peek into the Hub at any time.
BlackBerry Keyboard
The BlackBerry Keyboard learns how you write and adapts to how you type so you can write faster and more accurately.
BlackBerry Balance
BlackBerry Balance has been designed to satisfy both customer and corporate needs. With BlackBerry Balance, personal apps and information are kept separate from work data, and the customer can switch from their personal to work profile with a simple gesture. The work profile is fully encrypted and secure, enabling organizations to protect their content and applications.