RIM has been on a downward spiral as Apple and Android continue to dominate the smartphone market. However, the company has one last trump card left – that of BlackBerry 10. The good news are that more than 50 carriers have started testing BlackBerry 10 handsets, which means they are a’coming.
RIM has been criticized in the past for postponing the release of BlackBerry 10 phones repeatedly. Given the cut-throat competition that is going on in the smartphone market, every day RIM pushes back the release, it loses some more ground to Apple or Google.
However, as the details of RIM’s BlackBerry 10 OS have trickled over the recent past, many have expressed a hope that the company stands a chance to make a good come-back. For now, the company intends to release BlackBerry 10 phones during the first quarter of 2013.
And now that carriers have started testing its new devices, one can hope that these devices may indeed be ready for release by January or at most, February 2013.
According to the company’s CEO, Thorsten Heins, “In the last week, BlackBerry 10 achieved lab entry with more than 50 carriers — a key step in our preparedness for the launch of BlackBerry 10 in the first quarter of 2013.” The good news have, naturally, positively impacted RIM’s stock value which has climbed by a significant 4.7 percent.
Typically, lab tests last for some time between six and 20 weeks. At the worst, we can expect the lab tests to have passed the device by February at which point, RIM can ramp up the production of the units and announce a definite date for the release.
Source: Bloomberg
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