RIM has announced a new Blackberry prototype phone, which will be distributed on a limited basis to application developers. Hopefully, this move will help the company positively, considering the rough times it is going through. Though unavailable for sale until later this year, RIM hopes BlackBerry 10 will help cover their losses to Apple and Google’s Android.
The developer devices, the ‘alpha’ version of the phone that were given out to the software developers during a conference held by the company lacked some features like making calls or using wireless networks. This may not work too well for RIM’s infamous reputation for running behind schedule when it comes to delivery of products. However, the vice president of RIM’s developer relations rationalized this move by stating that it is essential to provide the developers with a stripped down version of the actual phone to avoid problems in the future and to generate applications for the platform before the Blackberry 10 OS is finally introduced in the market.
Apps are an indispensable part of smartphones and impact the demand of various smartphone platforms to a great extent. Blackberry has failed to match up to the standards of apps offered by iPhone and Android phones. With Blackberry 10, RIM hopes to introduce classy and compelling apps. However, the company will have to push developers for this, maybe even offer an incentive. RIM will be providing tools needed to create better apps to developers in software tool kits of three kinds.
The developer devices, with a display of 4.2 inches with resolution 1280×768, look a lot like a shrunken version of the BlackBerry PlayBook. Though they are larger, longer and wider as compared to iPhone 4S, they do not beat Samsung’s Galaxy Note, currently the largest Android phone, in terms of screen size. The presence of two microphones at the bottom is set to delivery better voice quality, and the dual-core processor and chips are set to provide great graphics. Interestingly, the trademark Blackberry QWERTY keyboard is absent.
As of now, the much-awaited BB10 has not been loaded on to the devices, and the Playbook’s user interface has been used instead, which is quite close to the upcoming BB10 OS. The battery life of the retail version of the phone is expected to differ from that of the prototype. This strategy of giving away prototypes mainly comes following the success of RIM’s practice of handing out free Playbooks to developers to improve app development.
