Research In Motion today announced its vision for the BlackBerry 10 platform as it launched its next generation operating system. At the BlackBerry World keynote today, CEO Thorsten Heins spoke about RIM’s focus being on helping “BlackBerry people” succeed on a daily basis.
The new interface focuses on application flow. For example, notifications can be pulled from the side with a simple gesture. A longer swipe can then take the user into the notifying application. Multitasking means that application don’t stop running. The keyboard (which retains the BlackBerry keyboard’s “frets” between rows) is quite innovative: As you type, word completion presents options that can be swiped up to the screen. The short video below illustrates these features:
A number of other BlackBerry 10 features were also covered:
- Camera ability to use a “timeline” to take step back or forward in time by a few seconds to take a better shot (avoiding someone blinking for example).
- Integration with other devices (like a car running BlackBerry 10)
- Support for 4G LTE
RIM also announced the launch of its development tools for BlackBerry 10. A beta version of the developer toolkit for native and HTML5 software development is now available.
“BlackBerry 10 builds upon the core values and exceptional user experiences that have attracted more than 77 million BlackBerry customers around the world today,” said Alec Saunders, Vice President, Developer Relations and Ecosystems Development. “Developers building for BlackBerry 10 will be able to easily create the kind of cutting-edge apps that deliver truly engaging experiences and ‘wow’ customers, whether through integration with native features and other apps like BBM or by leveraging the new signature design elements of this new and powerful mobile computing platform.”
RIM also reiterated that BlackBerry 10 devices are expected to launch in the latter part of 2012.
Read more: Research In Motion