Canadian phone maker Research In Motion has begun showing its new BlackBerrysmartphones to wireless carriers around the world, but the struggling companysays it is still months away from starting to sell them.
The smartphones running the new BlackBerry 10 operating system are critical toRIM's survival. RIM executives met with wireless companies this week andprovided a glimpse of the much-delayed system.
It is due out early next year and comes as North Americans are abandoningBlackBerrys for flashier iPhones and Android phones.
Andrew McLeod, managing director of RIM's Canadian operations, said Thursdaythat feedback from wireless carriers has been positive. McLeod said the companywill begin to discuss the product launches and other business aspects with thecarriers soon.
"We're in the process of finalizing the software," McLeod said."It was at a point where we had a confidence level that we could reallydemonstrate the validity of the products and software. Obviously you don't wantto show something that is not going to wow folks. People were excited with whatthey saw."
Alec Saunders, vice president of developer relations for RIM, said RIM is still"months and months" away from shipping the devices. RIM hostedhundreds of app developers at a conference near the company's headquarters inWaterloo, Ontario on Thursday. Saunders has been trying to rally softwaredevelopers to build for the new BlackBerry platform. RIM has lagged Apple inapp development
The new BlackBerrys will be released months after Apple is expected to launchthe iPhone 5. Analysts believe the launch will be Apple's biggest productintroduction yet.
RIM's platform transition is also happening under a new management team and asRIM lays off 5,000 employees as part of a bid to save $1 billion.
Thorsten Heins, who took over as RIM's chief executive in January after thecompany lost tens of billions in market value, had vowed to do everything hecould to release BlackBerry 10 this year but he said in June that the timetablesimply wasn't realistic.
RIM was once Canada's most valuable company with a market value of more than$80 billion in June 2008, but the stock has plummeted since, from over $140share to around $7. Its decline is evoking memories of Nortel, another Canadiantech giant, which declared bankruptcy in 2009.