BlackBerry World 2012: news, photos, video, and more – The Verge

RIM CEO confirms there’s no upgrade path from BlackBerry 7 to 10

2012-05-02T13:54:05-04:00

BlackBerry leather

We've seen and heard a lot about BlackBerry 10 this week, but if you're a BlackBerry owner excited about the new OS, you're going to have to get ready to invest in a new handset: RIM CEO Thorsten Heins confirmed once again this morning that the company has no upgrade path for existing BlackBerry 7 devices. In fact, the two seemed destined to co-exist: Heins spoke about the new BlackBerry 9220 (and confirmed the existence of the 9320), using their "successful launch" as an example of how RIM is still "onboarding people from featurephones to smartphones," a process that will take the next two years or so. The company seems to see BlackBerry 7 …

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Thorsten Heins on BlackBerry 10 in the US: ‘We’re here to win’

2012-05-02T13:08:40-04:00

Thorsten Heins hand 2

In addition to Thorsten Heins' discussion of BlackBerry 10 licensing and enterprise support, the RIM CEO also addressed one of the biggest issues currently facing his company: its struggles in the US market. Heins frankly admitted that RIM has an "uphill battle" in the US after missing the mark for the past couple of years. He specifically repeated his tongue-in-cheek claim that RIM was "too innovative on our touch solution," a reference to the failed "SurePress" system on the original BlackBerry Storm that combined physical movement with a touchscreen. "We are where we are," Heins said, but he believes RIM will be "a strong contender again" …

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RIM CEO: enterprise is ‘where BlackBerry lives best’

2012-05-02T12:22:13-04:00

Thorsten Heins RIM CEO

One of the questions on everyone's mind at BlackBerry World has been how RIM is dividing its focus between enterprise users and regular customers - where does the company see BlackBerry devices being used? CEO Thorsten Heins told a group of reporters during a press briefing that while RIM's still focused on consumers, a core place for growth is going to be in business settings. In response to a question asking essentially how the company feels about enterprise, Heins simply responded that "it absolutely matters. Right now, the external focus on the company is mostly driven by our handset and devices business… There's much more to RIM than ju …

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RIM investigating ‘segmentation of BlackBerry’ for licensing opportunities, says CEO

2012-05-02T12:17:36-04:00

Thorsten Heins hands

In a wide-ranging discussion with the press at BlackBerry World, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins addressed our question about his strategy for licensing BlackBerry 10. There are two major opportunities for RIM to license BB10: smartphones and "mobile computing" and in both cases, Heins confirmed that RIM is actively investigating its options.

Specifically with regards to smartphones, Heins said that he first would need to "prove BlackBerry 10" with his teams, then engage in other discussions to license it - specifically responding that he wouldn't comment yet on whether he would share it with competitors like Samsung. RIM is investigating its option …

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LTE-enabled PlayBook coming, says RIM CEO Thorsten Heins

2012-05-02T11:14:49-04:00

blackberry playbook

Evidence has been piling up that RIM is preparing an LTE version of its PlayBook tablet, but rumor no longer: CEO Thorsten Heins let us know this morning at a press briefing at BlackBerry World that there will indeed be an LTE-capable PlayBook "later this year." It appears RIM doesn't have immediate plans to change the PlayBook's hardware in a significant aesthetic way, however - we've heard a couple of times this week that RIM is very happy with the device's hardware, and with existing PlayBooks slated to receive BlackBerry 10 the hardware may well carry over. Details are scant on the LTE device's specs, price, or carrier (we've heard AT&T …

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RIM guarantees developers will make $10,000 on their ‘certified’ BlackBerry 10 apps in first year

2012-05-01T15:18:05-04:00

BlackBerry 10 Cascades on phone

RIM has announced at its BlackBerry Jam keynote address in Orlando today that it'll be guaranteeing that developers will make at least $10,000 in sales of their BlackBerry 10 apps in the first year - if they don't, RIM will cut a check for the difference. It's a widely-held belief that developer participation in a mobile ecosystem is what ultimately makes or breaks it (which is why Microsoft has been incentivizing developers on Windows Phone in a variety of ways), but this takes it to a new level: developers don't want to spend the time to port their apps or write new ones if they won't see a return on investment, and a guaranteed payout of $ …

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BlackBerry 10 apps reveal the future of RIM’s ecosystem

2012-05-01T09:55:53-04:00

PixelMag BlackBerry 10

At the BlackBerry World keynote, RIM is currently giving its developer partners an unusually large portion of the spotlight to show off the apps they have built for BlackBerry 10, some in as little as ten days. The apps are designed to show a few things: how easy it is to port apps to BB10 from other platforms, how flexible RIM's developer tools are, and most importantly how the new Cascades framework gives developers a way to create apps that match the look and feel of BB10.

We'll update this post live as we see the new apps that RIM's partners are trotting out, but if RIM's own press release is any guide, we should be seeing a list of tra …

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BlackBerry 10 Cascades interface revealed, tools released to developers

2012-05-01T09:53:23-04:00

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins just officially launched the "BlackBerry 10 Platform," or everything that makes up the development stack for BB10, including many architectural elements of the PlayBook OS. What's new is something that RIM has only hinted at before: Cascades and the Cascades UI.

"Cascades" is RIM's shorthand for a set of developer tools and resources for building apps that fit the look, feel, and interaction models of BB10. Developers can build apps using Cascades tools in either C/C++ or Qt and will now be able to do something that developers for every other smartphone platform have always been able to take for granted: create standar …

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BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha developer testing device hands-on impressions (update: video)

2012-05-01T09:29:49-04:00

BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha

RIM may finally be ready to begin showing BlackBerry 10 to users, but right now the company has another priority: getting developers on board with the new platform. To that end, it's giving every developer at the BlackBerry Jam conference here in Orlando a phone, the "BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha developer testing device."

That mouthful of a name is actually descriptive of what this device is and what it is not. It's not a prototype, it's not a phone that will ever be released, and RIM wants to make very clear that it's not necessarily indicative of what future BB10 phones will be. What it *is* is a device that developers can use to create BB10 …

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BlackBerry 10 unveiled

2012-05-01T09:28:31-04:00

BlackBerry 10

At its BlackBerry World event in Orlando today, RIM pulled the wraps off BlackBerry 10, a thoroughly-revamped platform based on QNX that the company is hoping will bring it back into contention. Though it's been talking about BlackBerry 10 since last year (when it was known as BBX), this is the first time that RIM is getting into details about what we can expect when it debuts on retail devices later in 2012.

RIM's putting an emphasis on "glanceable" gestures in the platform, allowing the user to quickly shift between apps, documents, and notifications with quick flicks - from what's been demoed on stage at the show, it looks like a smooth …

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