RIM to debut new BlackBerry 10 in heavily-hyped unveiling

It’s being billed as a make-or-break moment for Research in Motion, as the company unveils its latest version of its smartphone — BlackBerry 10 — to the world.

Anticipation is high ahead of Wednesday’s unveiling at 10 a.m. ET, where RIM will display its new phone and operating system, hoping to win back some of its once large North American subscriber base.

Key launch details are also expected to be announced at the launch. That will likely include its release date, which is expected in the next four to six weeks, the phone’s features and how much it will cost.

  • Follow real-time coverage from CityNews technology specialist Mike Yawney starting at 8:30 a.m. ET.

The launch has been hyped for months, after several delays forced RIM to push back the date into 2013, missing the lucrative 2012 holiday season.

Once a Canadian tech darling, RIM has seen much of its market share eaten away by increasing competition from the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android platform.

Several service outages in past months have also hurt the company, along with the long delay for BB10 and the lack of a new winning product.

These issues have all contributed to the price of RIM’s stock dropping to $15.71 from its all-time high of approximately $150 per share.

RIM is hoping the release of the BB10 will change the company’s fortunes, however, and renew the “cool” factor that once surrounded Blackberry phones.

The company said the new BlackBerry will be released first in a touchscreen version, while a keypad alternative will follow in the weeks or months afterward.

The new phone launch is RIM’s attempt to regain its position in the highly competitive North American and European smartphone markets, which are now dominated by iPhone and Android devices.

While the first hurdles to overcome are the opinions of tech analysts and investor reaction, the true measure of success — actual sales of the phones — is still weeks away.

The BlackBerry has dramatically lost marketshare in recent years after a series of blunders.

Several network outages left customers without the use of the smartphones they had come to rely on, while the BlackBerry’s hardware hasn’t received a significant upgrade in years.

RIM chief executive Thorsten Heins has already offered a glimpse of some features on the new devices. They include BlackBerry Balance technology, which allows one phone to operate as both a business and personal device entirely separate from each other.

The new BlackBerry will also let users seamlessly shift between the phone’s applications like they’re flipping between pages on a desk.

In the coming weeks, RIM will launch an advertising blitz to promote the phones, including aggressive social media campaigning, which includes plugs from celebrities on their Twitter accounts, and a 30-second advertisement on the Super Bowl, the most watched television program of the year.

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