Full Touch and QWERTY BlackBerry 10 Smartphones Will Land Together

Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion is determined to bring the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones to the market only in the first quarter of the next year, yet it will launch two of those at once, not a single device.

The company has already confirmed the push back to the first three months of the next year, explaining that the move would help the platform more than a hasty launch this year would. In fact, RIM’s CEO Thorsten Heins told CrackBerry that, for a successful launch in Q4 this year, they would need to have devices ready for unveiling in the September-October timeframe. A late November launch would not offer enough time for carriers to push devices to the front, and holiday sales won’t bring the expected boost in revenue. Another benefit of launching the platform at a later date is that RIM would be able to polish it as they please, and make sure that things are indeed working as they should. Moreover, the company would also have enough time to build its strategy for marketing the platform and devices powered by it. Of these, we should expect both full-touch and QWERTY-enabled devices to be launched side by side, RIM’s CMO Frank Boulben reportedly said.

The handset vendor will build the full-touch device first, saying that it is a bit more difficult to design for the OS, and that it would open the doors for BlackBerry 10, but it plans on announcing and marketing it along with the QWERTY smartphone, it seems. RIM will not abandon the QWERTY form factor, since it has proved extremely successful for the company, but it will push touch devices to shelves as well, since this is the trend today. BlackBerry 10 devices will see support from wireless carriers as well, RIM’s CEO confirmed. “The carriers want this platform out there. They see the Samsung / Apple duopoly and they don't like it. They want another third force. They believe we can do this. They've seen BlackBerry 10. They've had their hands around it. They can see it. And I think they like what they see,” he said.

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Image credits to RIM

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