The company responsible for making BlackBerrys, Research In Motion (RIM), announced yesterday that they are currently testing the new Blackberry 10 on 50 wireless carriers around the world. They also confirmed that the new BlackBerry 10 software and phones will be released during the first quarter of next year.

The Blackberry 10 is completely redesigned for the touch screen, internet browsing and apps. A full touch screen device will be released first, followed by a physical keyboard version a bit later.

This is a very important next couple of months for RIM. In fact, these phones are seen as critical to the company’s survival. This is due to an growing number of customers abandoning their BlackBerrys for other smartphones such as the iPhone or Android phones. Other factors include RIM’s attempt at touch screens and a tablet also turning out to be a flop, and their phones lacking a lot of the cool apps available on other smartphones.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins:

I’m very pleased to confirm that we have passed a critical milestone in the development of our brand new mobile computing platform. This process will continue in the coming months as more carriers around the world formally evaluate the devices and our brand new software.

[Source: News24]