Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) plans to give software developers prototypes for its new BlackBerry Smartphone platform in early May, signaling RIM is a step closer to debuting a handset it's betting on to lift sales. As many as 2,000 of the BlackBerry 10 test models will be given out to developers at RIM's BlackBerry Jam conference in Orlando, Florida and they are designed primarily to allow developers to build applications using the underlying operating system, Alec Saunders, RIM's vice-president developer relations, said today. “It's a huge step forward on our path to eventually launching BB10," Saunders said. “It's tangible evidence of the company making progress to finally shipping the device." RIM is counting on the BlackBerry 10 lineup, based on software called QNX it bought in 2010, to revive sales that have slumped in recent quarters, particularly in the U.S., its biggest and most competitive market. RIM's market share has dropped as consumers abandoned the BlackBerry for Apple's iPhone and touch-screen devices built on Google's Android software that offer a wider range of consumer apps. Saunders said the design of the test model and the screen's look and navigation will be very different from what eventually goes on sale to consumers. “The experience on this device from a consumer's perspective is not in any way indicative of what the final experience on BlackBerry 10 will be like," he said. “We are holding that back to create the interest around that at launch time." RIM has said the first of the new phones will go on sale in the “latter" part of 2012, a schedule reiterated today by Victoria Berry, a company spokeswoman. RIM is looking to generate buzz with developers who, like consumers, have drifted away from the BlackBerry platform because of the lack of a consistent operating system and recent losses in market share. The BlackBerry Jam event, which runs May 1-3 alongside the larger BlackBerry World Conference in Orlando, is designed to bring together developers and RIM's top software executives, including Saunders, to rekindle that interest. Every BlackBerry Jam participant will get a prototype up to the event's limit of 2,000. “This is a tool the developer can use to get a jumpstart to build applications that will be great on a BlackBerry 10 device in the future," Saunders said. The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which uses an operating system that is broadly the same as BB10, has about 10,000 apps, which should port very easily onto the new generation of smart phones, Saunders said. “My goal is that every single PlayBook app works on BB10," he said.
