BlackBerry reveals touch screen phone in market comeback bid

(Guardian (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The company behind the once-mighty BlackBerry has revealed the prototype for its first true internet phone in a last-ditch attempt to make a comeback against rivals Apple and Samsung.

After a string of profit warnings followed by its first quarterly loss in nearly seven years, Research In Motion has unveiled a touch screen phone and the new operating system, called BlackBerry 10, which it hopes will ensure its survival in the fiercely competitive handset market.

Some 2000 of the handsets, which look very similar to a black iPhone, were distributed to app developers at RIM's annual BlackBerry World gathering in Orlando yesterday. The BlackBerry keyboard has been ditched, although the company claimed its virtual keys learn their owners' typing habits and help eliminate errors.

The prototype phones will come loaded with an early version of the BlackBerry 10 software, so that developers can start building apps before its official release, which the company confirmed would be "in the latter part" of 2012.

Telecoms pundit Kevin Tofel praised the BB10 interface as "elegant" but added: "RIM has lost valuable time and sales momentum to Google Android and Apple iOS devices for the past several years. Simply put, a pretty demo does not a comeback make." The old BlackBerry, dubbed the original smartphone, was perfectly adapted for sending and receiving emails, but has struggled to keep up with the web capabilities and apps of the iPhone and devices from Samsung and others using Google Android software. Few developers bothered to create apps for the phones.

A number have now committed to supporting BB10, including mobile search-engine maker Poynt Corp, video game company Gameloft and international calls network Truphone.

RIM is releasing a developer tool kit that includes software called Cascades, which will help build graphic-rich applications. It also offers support for the popular open-source programming language HTML5.

"RIM has got it right with the BlackBerry 10 platform," said Truphone apps head, Adam Linford.

"There is tremendous interest, anticipation and momentum building toward the launch of BlackBerry 10 devices," claimed Christopher Smith, head of handheld application platform and tools at RIM.

RIM founder Mike Lazaridis and long- serving chief executive Jim Balsillie, the duo behind the international success of a phone once so popular it was dubbed the "crackberry", lost control of the company at the end of last year.

Shareholders demanded a shakeup after repeated profit warnings, months of delay to the launch of the BB10 software, and a botched entry into the tablet market with the poorly selling BlackBerry PlayBook.

Lazaridis and Balsillie resigned their shared co-chair and chief executive roles at the end of 2011. Financial decline has been swift, with RIM reporting a pre-tax loss of $137m in the quarter ended 3 March 2012, compared to a $1.2bn profit just a year before. The company has 77m BlackBerry subscribers around the world, but sales tumbled 25% in the last quarter, with US revenue plummeting more than 50%.

Captions: A number of developers are supporting the new BB10 and creating apps (c) 2012 Guardian Newspapers Limited.

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