A lot of eyes will be on the upcoming BlackBerry DevCon running from October 18th to October 20th in San Francisco. Not only will RIM preview its upcoming PlayBook 2.0 software but it will also show off prototypes of smartphones running QNX (perhaps the BlackBerry Colt?). According to RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, “The development platform for QNX phones will be presented in more detail at DevCon in October, and prototype phones featuring the QNX operating system and development platform will be available in the not to distant future.”
Despite the pressure to get a QNX-powered smartphone out as quickly as possible in a bid to reverse its flagging fortunes, RIM must also get this first device right (unlike the struggling PlayBook which launched without key features – like native access to e-mail, calendar and contacts). Lazaridis acknowledged this during the financial call that followed RIM’s fiscal Q2 2012 financial results: “The success of the recent BlackBerry launches is an example of our focus on product readiness. If we had rushed the product, we would not have benefited from the positive reception.”
Here’s hoping that the QNX-powered BlackBerry smartphone be the home run that RIM so desperately needs right now…