First BlackBerry 10 devices coming January 2013, 10-inch Playbook in Q3, says leaked doc

Prognosis dim, RIM is inching towards its demise. The company is coming off one of its worst quarters ever, its stock value has evaporated, and it just can’t seem to finish BlackBerry 10. Things aren’t going well, to say the least.

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But while journalists, analysts, and investors all have their first drafts of RIM’s eulogy written up, the company isn’t going down without a fight. Or at least that’s what its latest leaked roadmap indicates.

The document, leaked to enthusiast site BlackBerryOS and posted below, sketches both the near- and long-term future of RIM. This year, the company plans to release a 4G version of its Playbook tablet, a device that’s been rumored for a long while now. So no surprises there.

Sadly, the really interesting stuff won’t happen until next year, when RIM plans to release its first BlackBerry 10 devices. RIM confirmed this delay last week, which only added to the company’s resulting stock plunge.

The push will start in the first quarter with a pair of devices dubbed London and Nevada,  two devices that represent the past and future of RIM’s industrial design: While the Nevada will feature the same keyboard that BlackBerry users know and love, the London looks like it’s going to strongly resemble the average Android phone.

Notably, as BlackBerryOS points out, the general receptiveness of Europe to the BlackBerry may force RIM to start its BlackBerry OS push there before the U.S.

RIM also plans to release a 10-inch version of the Playbook, which will likely be the first tablet to natively run BlackBerry 10. Codenamed “Blackforest” the device is queued for a Q3 release.

While all of this sounds promising, it’s hard to avoid one seemingly inevitable question: Will it all be too little, too late? By the time RIM gets around to releasing its first BlackBerry 10 devices, the battle between Windows Phone 8, Android Jelly Bean, and iOS 6 will be well underway, leaving RIM lagging behind in a race it can’t afford to lose.

Then again, who knows if RIM will even be around to finish at all.

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