Research In Motion said the long awaited launch of its BlackBerry 10 operating system will happen Jan. 30, at an event where it will also show off the first two smartphones running the new OS.
The company noted that the event will take place “simultaneously in multiple countries around the world.” RIM added that core to the launch will be a “large catalog” of applications in support of the new OS, which has been a sticking point for the company’s current application store. RIM has noted that there were currently more than 100,000 applications in its BlackBerry World application store, which pales in comparison to the more than 700,000 applications available across Apple and Google’s application markets.
Already touted features of the new OS include BlackBerry Flow and BlackBerry Hub, which are expected to simplify the user experience, and BlackBerry Balance that is expected to allow users to set up different profiles for work and personal use.
The new OS and accompanying devices have been hinted at by the company for some time, though delays have been the name of the game. RIM finally showed off portions of the new OS in September, and said earlier this month that 50 carriers were testing the OS on their networks.
For wireless carriers, the unveiling could provide yet another chance to offer consumers a compelling third option in the mobile operating system space. Currently, Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS dominate the smartphone sales charts, with a handful of alternatives trying to grab hold of the No. 3 position.
Canalys recently reported that RIM was the No. 5 vendor of smartphones during the third quarter with 4.2% market share and shipping 7.3 million units worldwide. The results were down from No. 4 position RIM held during the third quarter of 2011, when it shipped 11.8 million units. During the most recent quarter, Samsung, which relies on Google’s Android OS for a vast majority of its smartphone sales, was far and away the No. 1 smartphone vendor shipping 55.5 million devices for 32% of the market. Apple occupied the No. 2 position with a 15.5% share, followed by Sony at 5.1% and HTC at 4.8%.
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