The company formerly known as Research in Motion has unveiled the BlackBerry 10 operating system and two new phones, the Q10 and Z10, that run on it. Before RIM CEO Thorsten Heins debuted the new gadgets in New York on Wednesday morning, he made a different kind of big announcement: RIM no longer exists. From now on the company that makes BlackBerry phones will go by BlackBerry, likely because Research in Motion had almost zero brand recognition. And with that new brand, BlackBerry has a new OS and gadgets to help bring the brand back to relevance in a hail-mary move to catch up with the competition. Here's what BlackBerry announced today:
The BlackBerry 10 OSThe hardware isn't what will save BlackBerry — it needs apps and software that will lure back customers.
Apps: BlackBerry claims it already has 70,000 apps in its store, including Facebook, Skype, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Twitter, What's App, a bunch of games (like Angry Birds), and news apps. It does not, however, have Instagram, showing it might have a problem drawing the coolest, newest apps.
BBM: Another hallmark of BlackBerry got a face-lift today, too. The once-popular messaging service now has video chat, voice calls, and screen sharing, basically making it a competitor to that whole iChat/Facetime thing that Apple has going on.
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