Last week’s BlackBerry World event marked the announcement of the BlackBerry 10 OS, a new platform Research in Motion is counting on as the struggling company tries to regain market share in several areas.
An alpha developer (Dev Alpha) version of BlackBerry 10 was also released – this is actually a tweaked version of the BlackBerry PlayBook’s OS that would help developers present as many apps as possible when time comes for the official BlackBerry 10 release.
A certain “J. Duke” from opensourcebb.com (OSBB) was able to leak a total of nine device names, culled from the Dev Alpha’s file system. The leaked data can simply be accessed by typing file:///radio/etc/sv.numbers in the Dev Alpha’s browser, although for those curious about what these codenames are, here’s a quick rundown – Nevada, Winchester2 LTE, Winchester2 HSPA+, Winchester2 LTE HSPA+, Colt, London, Blackforest, Nashville and Naples.
Now the question is as follows – which is which?
Colt refers to the Dev Alpha OS – at least that we know for sure. There’s some division over which codename corresponds with the 10-inch PlayBook expected to be released later in the year. Some say this would be the Blackforest while others claim the Winchester2 codename is more likely for RIM’s upcoming slate.
Right now, nothing is definite except the Dev Alpha’s codename, so we’ll just have to wait and see what RIM’s plans are for the rest of 2012. These plans, according to RIM big boss Thorsten Hains, would include an “exciting device” that has been over a year and a half in the making.
Here’s hoping that device isn’t only exciting, but relevant enough to boost BlackBerry’s fortunes in the smartphone and/or tablet market.