RIM won't show off BlackBerry 10 phones this year
Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben tells CNET that Research In Motion will show off more of BlackBerry 10's capabilities, but there will be no big reveal until closer to the launch date.
- SABEW Best in Business 2011 Award for Breaking News Coverage, Eddie Award in 2020 for 5G coverage, runner-up National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award for culture analysis.
BlackBerry fans hoping to get a peek at the next-generation phones will have to wait until early next year.
Research In Motion won't be showing off its two BlackBerry 10 phones this year, Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben told CNET in an interview.
RIM has a lot riding on the success of its next-generation BlackBerry 10 platform. The company is pinning its hopes on BlackBerry 10 to reverse its market share losses, slumping revenue, and continued losses. But a lot of that has do with generating interest in the phones themselves.
The company plans to show off more of the capabilities of BlackBerry 10, but the full reveal won't occur until closer to launch, Boulben said.
RIM is holding its cards close to its vest and likely prefers to stay away from the holiday maelstrom of phone launches. Still, it's not unusual for a handset vendor to announce and unveil a phone several months before it actually hits the market.
He noted that it would be a large global campaign backed by the carriers.
While RIM won't publicly unveil the phones -- a full touch-screen device and another with a full keyboard -- it has been on a roadshow to demonstrate the devices to carriers.
"They've seen BB10 and they love it," he said. "We'll have strong backing from the carriers."
The company has also privately shown the phone to members of the media, and CNET has seen the phones.