RIM Promises will Give Blackberry Prototype for Developers

Research in Motion (RIM) plans to give developers a prototype BlackBerry 10 device to help them design applications for future smartphones that will run on a modified version of the software running RIM’s poor-selling PlayBook tablet.

RIM will be giving away prototype BlackBerry 10 devices to developers attending its annual BlackBerry World Conference in early May. According to Bloomberg, RIM’s VP of developer relations Alec Saunders revealed in a phone interview today that as many as 2,000 units of the prototype device will given out to developers to get a head start building applications for the next-gen QNX-based platform.

The announcement comes amid news of slumping BlackBerry sales and waning developer interest in the much delayed platform transition that will not see the launch of new BlackBerry 10 devices until late 2012. The arrival of the prototypes in May is a positive sign that the company is still on track, but Saunders emphasized that those test models will be very different from the actual handsets that will hit the market.

The Canadian company made clear that the device was not a commercial BlackBerry 10 device, the first of which are due to launch later this year, but would help create excitement among developers for its overhauled operating system.

RIM has struggled to match the massive app libraries available on Apple products and Google’s Android platform, used by a range of handset makers including Samsung.

It is starting afresh with PlayBook and BlackBerry 10, which use a completely different operating system than RIM’s legacy BlackBerry smartphones. The device, called the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha, will be given to developers attending RIM’s annual BlackBerry World conference taking place in Orlando, Florida, in early May.

RIM has struggled to match the massive app libraries available on Apple products and Google’s Android platform, used by a range of handset makers including Samsung. It is starting afresh with PlayBook and BlackBerry 10, which use a completely different operating system than RIM’s legacy BlackBerry smartphones. (Source Yahoo, Reuters and SlashGear)