Research in Motion recently showed off new details for its upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform, detailing the new operating system’s features and giving a rough early-2013 release date.
Research in Motion recently showed off new details for its upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform, detailing the new operating system’s features and giving a rough early-2013 release date. It also showed a developer-only smartphone that would be used as a testbed for the platform’s touch-centric interface. This device, known as the BlackBerry Dev Alpha B, packs a 4.2-inch screen with a 1280 x 768 pixel resolution and drops RIM’s iconic QWERTY keypad in favor of a full touch screen.
However, a new leaked video indicates that the Canadian smartphone pioneer hasn’t given up on its hardware keypads just yet. This video shows off a pair of devices running BlackBerry 10, one of which is the all-touch screen L Series device, which just about lines up with the Dev Alpha smartphone.
The second smartphone is somewhat more interesting. The N Series has the familiar QWERTY keyboard, but it features some tweaked proportions. The screen seems larger, while the bottom bezel is smaller compared to the current BlackBerry Bold.
Of course, it’s really difficult to read into this leak. CrackBerry suggeststhat this video was intended solely for the consumption of RIM executives, possibly as part of a pitch for the new devices’ marketing campaign. The video, which was posted on Vimeo, has since been pulled.
While RIM says it will continue to support current smartphones running BlackBerry 7, it has bet on BlackBerry 10 to claw back some market share and establish itself as the number three player after Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS platforms.
The video was taken down.