We might not be getting the BlackBerry 10 this year, but it’s still coming! Thanks to BlackBerry OS‘ anonymous source, we have what appears to be an adjusted BlackBerry 10 Roadmap for 2013! Here is a quick overview of the estimate release dates, sadly they are not specific dates:
- 4G PlayBook – Q4, 2012
- BlackBerry 10 London/Nevada – Q1, 2013 – Europe launch before N. America
- BlackBerry 10 Upgrade for PlayBook – Q1/Q2, 2013
- BlackBerry device codenamed “Nashville” – Q2/Q3, 2013
- BlackBerry 10 inch PlayBook “Blackforest” – Q3, 2013
- BlackBerry device codenamed “Naples” – Q3/Q4, 2013
The source goes on to reveal that RIM will be launching BlackBerry 10 in Europe 3-4 weeks prior to launching BlackBerry 10 in North America. Don’t panick, both launches will still take place in Q1. The BlackBerry 10 Europe launch is supposedly set to take place within the first week of January, while the North American launch to follow in the first week of February. The reason behind this being purely tactical – the European markets and media outlets have been more receptive to BlackBerry than the “doom and gloom” attitude of the North American media outlets therefor giving priority where RIM has had much better success with BlackBerry in general. This move should give the global market more time to become accustomed to BlackBerry 10 and create the hype it needs to make it’s way to the shelves of North America and elsewhere.
Okay, so looking at the roadmap, we can safely translate that:
- The 4G LTE PlayBook is still on track and will be on the market before the year’s end. This will usher in the first BlackBerry 10 devices in Q1 of 2013, and PlayBook’s running OS 2 will get an upgrade to BlackBerry 10 OS. Probably the best news about being a PlayBook owner you can get.
- These devices codenamed “Nashville” tracking between Q2/Q3 and “Naples” Q3/Q4 are speculated to be possible variations of the QWERTY N-Series. It would make sense being they all have a codename that starts with the letter N.
- The device codenamed “Blackforest” has long now been rumored to be the 10 inch BlackBerry tablet and it looks to be tracking for Q3, 2013. There is also the number “128” shown besides the “Blackforest” codename – Could this mean that the first 10 inch PlayBook will come in a 128 GB model!? This could be very well so, as RIM has just axed the 16 GB model, citing that less of memory is just not going to be relevant anymore as they continue their focus on higher capacity models.
- Just from speculation we can assume RIM recognized the need to satisfy keyboard lovers – the backbone of BlackBerry, and the delay was tactical to ensure the release of both touch and qwerty BB10 devices.
Should this be a reliable source then I guess RIM, while keeping us on edge, is sending a subtle message to users and developers alike with the release of the PlayBook 4G in Q4 this year – BlackBerry 10 is in the PlayBook.