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February 02, 2012

Research in Motion's BlackBerry 10 Handset Might Take After Playbook Tablet

By Miguel Leiva-Gomez, TMCnet Contributor

Research in Motion (News - Alert) or RIM, a company that is known for its BlackBerry phones, wants to make its line of phones more appealing with its new operating system, the BlackBerry 10 OS. The company's first phone using the BlackBerry (News - Alert) 10 OS seems to already have a design, but some images leaked from a reliable source show that RIM might take after its own Playbook tablet. Blackberry 10 phones will become available sometime in 2012; however an exact date hasn't been revealed yet.



Crackberry, a very popular source for BlackBerry news, has just conducted an interview with CEO Thorsten Heins of RIM. It seems that Crackberry got its hands on an image of RIM's BlackBerry London, the alleged phone that will have BlackBerry 10 OS. Compared to previous drafts of the BlackBerry London, this one was completely alien. In fact, Crackberry says that the phone might be similar to a "downsized Playbook." The news outlet also argued that there might be different versions for the United States and the United Kingdom.

BlackBerry, however, is certainly going to need to remake its brand after the lack of popularity it's had with the general public, and RIM has less than a year to do it. RIM already worked an entire year, sweating through thousands of lines of code, just to resolve compatibility issues between BlackBerry 10 and the BlackBerry email application. Playbook tablets, which use a similar version of what RIM wants to cram in the BlackBerry London failed miserably because of a lack of brand popularity. The tablets weren't bad at all, but people weren't interested in them since everyone and his dog is more inclined to get an iPad.

Worst of all, RIM hasn't even struck a deal with a chip manufacturer for a chipset. The company’s been working on getting either Texas Instruments or Qualcomm (News - Alert) to make the phone's chipset. The CPU also isn't decided on, since the previous CEO of RIM said that the London will use a CPU that isn't available right now. If RIM pulls through and can release an innovative smartphone, it might regain its place in the U.S. market, but right now people aren't quite convinced about its potential

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Miguel Leiva-Gomez is a professional writer with experience in computer sciences, technology, and gadgets. He has written for multiple technology and travel outlets and owns his own tech blog called The Tech Guy, where he writes educational, informative, and sometimes comedic articles for an audience that is less versed in technology.

Edited by Jamie Epstein
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