BlackBerry 10 developer kit aims to unleash application tsunami

RIM has marked the start of its BlackBerry World conference by announcing the release of the developer kit for the much-delayed BlackBerry 10 operating system and handing out crippled prototype handsets that should go on sale by the end of the year. "We’re extremely excited to release the BlackBerry 10 developer beta tools for …

[Anonymous Coward]

Last choice for developers

I'll admit to a slight sentimental attachment to QNX but with iOS, Android, WP7/8, Metro style, theres more than enough for app developers to be spending time on. What are RIM thinking of, this just has fail written all over it.

[Raz]

No physical keyboard?

They better put one in, otherwise who would want one of these phones?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: No physical keyboard?

Completely agree. I don't want a touchscreen keyboard, I want a physical keyboard. Well, I was already going to bin the Blackberry when my contract's up. It cuts out, it keeps losing the SIM, it's slow, the browser stinks, and the PC software is so horribly bugged that it won't sync with my PC any more and, apparently, nobody knows how to fix it.

[Nathan 6]

Tsunami of Failure, that is

RIM's new OS dead. By saying f*ck you to their current Java devs, they basically drove yet another proverbial nail in the coffin.

If I was RIMS board, I would be pushing for buyout by M$.

[Bear Features]

Re: Tsunami of Failure, that is

And no doubt they should take advice from you.

[Ilgaz]

.. And google wins again

Guess where all those pissed off Java developers with enterprise expertise will end up in? Android.

As a side note about Chinese, they should have checked Android market, made in China apps. All those popular ones are impossible on both their platform or Microsoft's.

I just hope QNX won't be victim of these idiots, hope they will be first to be saved/ acquired.

[shaolin cookie]

Re: Tsunami of Failure, that is

Yes... but interestingly they seem to be opting for Qt / QML, so guess they're targeting the Symbian / MeeGo developers that Nokia has alienated.

[ItsNotMe]

Tsunami?

More like a ripple on a pond, most likely.

[Anonymous Coward]

So their plan for the future is

...BB OS X?

No keyboard, no reason to get it over the competition.

[Mark Dowling]

"the hardware keyboard has been replaced"

Could the Reg please find someone to write about Blackberry, however critically, that remembers that RIM have and are producing non-keyboard BBs NOW?

[Phil Koenig]

Not getting rid of the keyboard

RIM has clarified that they have no intention of getting rid of the keyboard, but that probably the initial BB10 device will be all-touchscreen.

In the tech forums I visit in the USA, RIM gets nothing but criticism. Some of which is warranted of course, but it really feels more like some blinded-by-emotional-fury soccer fans that go killing each other over soccer matches than a discussion about smartphone platforms.

RIM gets constantly savaged for not fielding more battery-sucking giant-screen monstrosities so people can play more games with 'em (though with multiple charged batteries at the ready I'd assume), and then when they finally knuckle under to all the braying and decide to put emphasis on a touch-screen device for once, out come the people savaging them over THAT decision.

Smartphones have long-since become fashion accessories, and people seem to treat them as such. If you don't have what's "in", you're a wanker - no discussion necessary.