There Could be Two BlackBerry 10 Smartphones on RIM's Drawingboard

Research in Motion may be planning to introduce two phones running its upcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system by the end of this year. This is double the number mentioned in an earlier report.

RIM is hard at work finishing work on its next-generation OS. This will be a dramatic change, and the first version based on the QNX OS. It is intended to make the company competetive against Google's Android and Apple's iOS.

The first first smartphone running BlackBerry 10 is scheduled for some point after the middle of this year, according to an official statment from this company. The company is keeing quiet about any details of this device, however.

Bring on the Rumors
That hasn't stopped a flow of unconfirmed reports. According to the latest of these, the oft-rumored BlackBerry London is going to be released in early fall -- September to be exact.

It will allegedly run BlackBerry 10 on a 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM. As shown in the leaked image to the left, the device will employ a bar shape with a 3.7-inch touchscreen and dual cameras: an 8MP shotter on the back and a 2MP one on its front.

The London will supposedly be followed by a second BlackBerry 10 handset whose code-name is curently unknown. This will be part of the Bold series, with a touschreen and physical keyboard. Aside from a release date at some point in December, all other detauils on this model remain a mystery.

Hi-Res Screens a Requirement
An important feature of RIM's next-generation operating system is its support for just a single screen resolution -- 1024-by-600, whether it is running on a tablet or a handset. This will make developing software for this platform much easier, but will limit the designs for smartphones that are possible. Displays can't be too small, or the screen elements will become unusably tiny.

This has raided questions about the formfactor of future RIM smartphones like the one supposedly sceduled for December. If it was to have the same shape as the currrent BlackBerry Bold 9900 it would have a 2.8-inch display with three times the pixel density as the current VGA (640 x 480) one.

One possible solution is using a physical keyboard on a moving panel that can slid behind the touscheren. This makes room for a large screen and keyboard.

Source