Research In Motion yesterday held its annual shareholder assembly. While there was not much that was new, one interesting topic that came up was what would happen to BlackBerry 7 once BlackBerry 10 came out. It appears that retirement is not in the cards just yet for the older operating system.
RIM did not provide many details on this dual-strategy. Expect BlackBerry 7 devices to occupy low- and mid- pricing tiers and continue to be a big part of RIM’s offering in developing markets. BB10 devices will become RIM’s new flagship devices (hopefully without a price premium).
It’s not clear how long BlackBerry 7 will live on. A leaked BlackBerry 10 device roadmap suggests a number of devices will be released next year. These will gradually push BlackBerry 7 out to pasture. It’s also not clear if we will see new BlackBerry 7 devices and how much (if any) additional development RIM will put into the OS.