News of the supposed Z10 device arrives before the company officially launches the platform on January 30 and the following ten handsets slated for a 1Q13 release. Phones planned for the reveal supposedly include a Torch-like full-touch device, and a Bold-like QWERTY candy/bar form factor.
Based on the unconfirmed advert, the new all-touch smartphone, previously known as the "L Series", will arrive in both black and white models, and feature services like seamless app switching, notification peeking and contact profiles. It also shows that RIM has ditched the four-digit naming scheme and is shooting for something a bit more shorter, zippier. A second keyboard-equipped version is expected to be called the BlackBerry X10.
RIM is seemingly placing all bets on its new BlackBerry 10 platform, as it's come down to a make-it-or-break-it scenario for the struggling smartphone company in a market dominated by Google's Android platform and Apple's iPhone. Just this week RIM reported falling unit sales and revenue for its third fiscal quarter, saying that it only sold 6.9 million BlackBerry phones, down from 7.4 million in the previous quarter. A mere 255,000 units of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet were sold in that quarter as well.
"Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2013 was $2.7 billion, down 5-percent from $2.9 billion in the previous quarter and down 47-percent from $5.2 billion in the same quarter of fiscal 2012," the company stated. "The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 60% for hardware, 36% for service and 4% for software and other revenue."
Based on its financial numbers, RIM has quite a lot riding on the BlackBerry Z10, the X10 and the BlackBerry 10 platform itself. The Washington Post reports that investors "made it clear they will have little patience with the company if it doesn’t live up to expectations." That said, will 2013 be the year RIM reclaims its share of the smartphone market? We'll initially see in just a matter of weeks.
