BlackBerry 10 looms on the horizon as RIM's last chance to get the company back on track. Both the operating system and the handsets that will accompany it could bring the company back from the brink -- or sink it further into financial difficulty.
In other words, what comes out of Waterloo in the next few months is a big deal.
The site NN4B got its hands on an allegedly internal RIM slide that has images of two of the company's new BlackBerry 10-compatible devices. The image details the L and N series handsets that, according to N4BB, will be released in August.
RIM announced at BlackBerry World that the first BlackBerry 10 device would ship without a physical keyboard. The L-series handset in the slide looks to be the fruition of that plan. According to the slide, the unannounced device will sport a 768×1280 screen with a 356 ppi pixel density and will be 55 mm wide. This is just slightly narrower than the iPhone 4S, which is 58.6 mm.
The second device in the slide appears to be RIM's first BlackBerry 10 phone with a physical keyboard. The N-series phone will have a 720×720 OLED screen with 330 ppi, and will be either 52 or 53 mm wide. The lack of a final width could be a clue that RIM is still working on the final design of the handset.
Both BlackBerry fans and the market are keeping an eye on RIM and its next release to decide if the Canadian-based company has what it takes to stick around, or if it will suffer the same fate as Palm.
