BlackBerry today celebrated its success as a comeback kid by launching a pint-sized version of the BlackBerry Q10, dubbed the Q5, and confirming the BlackBerry 10.1 OS update would roll out to most BlackBerry Z10 users this week.
BlackBerry may have had a tumultuous year, but it's back stronger and better than before with a great OS, new devices and a management team hungry for success. So says CEO Thorsten Heins who took to the stage at the company's BlackBerry Live conference in Orlando today to reaffirm BlackBerry isn't going anywhere other than up.
- Read our BlackBerry Q10 review here.
- Read our BlackBerry Z10 review here.
- Read our BlackBerry 10 OS review here.
"Some people told me last year would be last conference for BlackBerry. I'm happy to say they were wrong... We are not only still here - we are firing on all cylinders as a company. We are taking our innovation and creativity to whole new levels. We are also taking new risks and we are definitely in the race," he said, adding that - while the past 12 months had felt like a long journey - the company had now reached "solid ground."
He added: "BlackBerry 10 as a platform is entirely new. This is not an update to an older BlackBerry OS. It has been completely redesigned, re-engineered and reinvented. We're committed to making BlackBerry 10 the mobile platform that will take the industry into the next and new era of mobile computing. That's what we're destined to do."
We are not only still here - we are firing on all cylinders as a company. We are taking our innovation and creativity to whole new levels.
In addition to boasting that "nobody makes keyboards better than BlackBerry" Heins talked up the growth of apps in its BlackBerry World store with numbers topping 120,000 compared with 70,000 apps hosted in January.
BlackBerry also used the event to launch a number of new products and services as well as refreshing existing offerings. The latest iteration of BlackBerry 10 OS, BlackBerry 10.1, will be rolled out to BlackBerry Z10 users this week, it confirmed.
A slimmed down version of the BlackBerry Q10, dubbed the BlackBerry Q5, was also launched in a range of colours, and is aimed at emerging markets and consumer users.
But the business world was not left unloved by the keynote.
