RIM has some bragging rights it’s taking full advantage of, which is a good idea since RIM rarely gets to brag about anything these days. Though BlackBerry 10 isn’t quite ready for consumer use yet, the company has been showing off the new OS to carriers and apparently, they really like it.
A few top execs from RIM including its CEO Thorsten Heins has been going around providing demos to carriers in the United States and Canada of the progress on BlackBerry 10 so far. Carriers in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere should expect to get a visit from Heins in the coming weeks.
“The response that we got back from the executive team at some of the Canadian carriers was tremendous,” said Andrew McLeod, managing director of RIM’s Canadian operations in a media briefing on Thursday. “They were visibly positive and visibly enthusiastic.”
Sounds good. Of course, it doesn’t matter very much whether carriers like it. Consumers have to like it, and like it enough to then buy a BlackBerry product. Carriers can certainly help RIM create some hype around it though.
“[BlackBerry 10] was at a point where we had a confidence level that we could really demonstrate the validity of the products and software,” McLeod added. “Obviously, you don’t want to show something that is not going to wow folks. People were excited with what they saw.”
RIM says it’s in the process of finalizing the software. BlackBerry 10 is expected to ship in 2013, assuming RIM doesn’t decide to delay the launch again.