New BlackBerry Models & Software Announced
NEW YORK (CBS NEWS/CBSDFW.COM) - Research in Motion changed its company name to BlackBerry during a press event in New York on Wednesday morning, and launched a highly-anticipated makeover of its mobile operating system, BlackBerry 10. The company also showed off new smartphone models that will use the new software.
BlackBerry kicked off the event with endorsements from professionals. The company said that it went on a world tour to talk to developers about the BlackBerry 10 operating system. CEO Thorsten Heins took to the stage to unveil the features and the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10, which will be the first to run exclusively on the BlackBerry 10 software. "This is one of the biggest launches in our industry and today is not the finish line, it's the starting line," said Heins.
BlackBerry 10 has a feature called Balance, which is geared toward professionals who use their devices for personal use and work, by using gestures to switch between "personal" and "work" profiles. BlackBerry 10 also launches with over 70,000 applications, including Skype, Amazon Kindle and WhatsApp. BlackBerry Messenger gets a big update and BlackBerry Flow was unveiled, allowing users to move between apps by using gestures.
The BlackBerry Z10 is a touchscreen device with a 4.2-inch display, front-facing camera and rear-facing camera. The BlackBerry Q10 will keep a full QWERTY keyboard and has a 3.1-inch display. Both devices have 4G LTE capabilities. Wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile will be announcing pre-registration and price plans. The white version of the BlackBerry Z10 will be exclusive to Verizon.
The BlackBerry Z10 will be not be available in the U.S. until March. There are no details on a release date for the BlackBerry Q10.
BlackBerry is based in Canada, but the company's U.S. headquarters is located in Irving.
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