BlackBerry Roadmap Reveals New Devices And Possible OS 10 Delay

Steve McCaskill,

BlackBerry 10 could be delayed till October, according to a leaked roadmap

A leaked BlackBerry roadmap has revealed the existence of several new devices and features and has suggested that first device running BlackBerry 10 OS could be delayed.

The roadmap, which covers the next 15 months, includes a mystery device simply named ‘device’, widely believed to be the first BlackBerry 10 smartphone, pencilled in for a late September debut but could be pushed back to October.

Trendy pure white colour

Two new smartphones have been detailed, the BlackBerry Curve 9320 and 9220, along with a new 3G BlackBerry PlayBook. The seven-inch tablet will be powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processer, 32GB of flash memory and 1GB of RAM as well as support for Near Field Communication (NFC).

Reports last week suggested that an ‘uncovered roadmap’ detailed plans for both a new seven-inch and a 10-inch Long Term Evolution (LTE) PlayBook, however the latter was not described in this latest discovery.

Other features disclosed in the document include the introduction of Wireless Media Server, which will allow users to share pictures, music and movies with other devices and will be accompanied by a BlackBerry 7.1 update.

RIM also appears to be committed to addresses the vitally important issue of bringing the “popular and trendy Pure White” colour versions of all its devices to the market.

Future problems

Any further delay to the first BlackBerry 10 OS device could harm RIM’s chances of recovery. Smartphones running the QNX-based operating system have been continuously delayed, forcing the company to rely on BlackBerry 7 OS for an extended period of time.

The phone, previously known as ‘London’, is believed to have a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, eight megapixel rear camera, an ultra thin body and reportedly “roughly the same size as a Galaxy S II”.

The delay of the smartphone has contributed to a torrid 2011 for RIM, which also suffered from a major worldwide outage and disappointing sales of the PlayBook.

The company’s problems finally caught up with co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie earlier this week and they announced they were stepping down in favour of Thorsten Heins as part of a management shakeup.