On Tuesday, Research in Motion unveiled prototypes of the BlackBerry 10 phone and operating system–a product more or less unanimously considered to be the company’s last chance (if that moment hasn’t already passed). Emphasis on the proto- there; the New York Times reports that the “phone” can’t actually make calls yet, is completely without buttons, and will have bad battery life.
Why release such a prototype at all? RIM wants to woo developers to the platform as soon as possible. If, when the phone actually launches late this year, it’s devoid of apps, it will be essentially dead upon its arrival into the marketplace. And so RIM is putting out what it’s calling an “alpha” version of the phone, a “very, very stripped down” version. Other out-of-context choice quotes from the befuddled vice president of developer relations include: “a little bit pokey,” and “not super great.”
That last bit was said in particular of the prototype’s battery life (it will require much additional coding to find energy efficiencies), but it sounds as though it might be said of the device as a whole. It’s unclear why any developers would be sufficiently impressed by the device to suddenly divert resources from their Android and iOS divisions. An RIM spokeswoman has even said that the prototype is “not indicative of what the hardware will look like at launch.” Why would you want to begin developing an app based on a slab of electronics that may or may not even closely resemble the ultimate device consumers would be using your app on?
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