A move speculated on the Wall Street for many weeks has turned into a reality. Blackberry maker Research in Motion Co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have stepped down from their position to become Vice Chair of the Board, Chairman of the new Innovation Committee and a member of the Board respectively.

Thorsten Heins will be promoted to President and CEO of RIM. Heins joined he company from Siemens Communications Group in 2007 and COO for Product and Sales in August 2011.

Meet Thorsten Heins in the video below:

RIM announced a new software update for BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 at the CES 2012 and we managed to get our hands on it. The PlayBook OS 2.0 is a significant update that takes the maiden BlackBerry tablet to a whole new level.

The most missed feature in the PlayBook is now available – native email. Additionally, there’s an unified inbox, multi-tasking within email, deep social integration of contacts, improved BlackBerry Bridge that allows to use BlackBerry device’s keyboard and mouse, control it and even open files and videos directly from the phone to the PlayBook.

On the business front, the new OS will integrate an improved version of Documents to Go office suite, increased control of corporate data, more apps and a video store (not shown on the video).

RIM will release the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 in February 2012.

RIM’s PlayBook sale in India is a hit, going by the recent numbers. Following the announcement of the sale last week, RIM has managed to sell each and every PlayBook available on the retail shelf. According to RIM India’s Director, Sunil Dutt, RIM sold more than 12,000 devices in just 4 days and to give a chance to new consumers, RIM is extending the sale by a week.

PlayBook is RIM’s first tablet offering powered by QNX OS and features dual-core processors, dual HD cameras, 7-inch display, Wi-Fi and more.

RIM will sell 16GB, 32GB and 64GB PlayBook tablets for Rs. 13,490, Rs. 15,990 and Rs. 24,490 respectively.

[Via ToI]

Out in the market for a decently-priced tablet? Well, you can take a look at RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook. The entry-level BlackBerry tablet now goes for just Rs. 13,490. A steal, if you ask me. Other SKUs like the 32GB and 64GB also got a price drop, which is now Rs. 15,990 and Rs. 24,490 respectively.

The offer is valid till December 31, 2011 and is available at all BlackBerry outlets.

Wondering about the PlayBook? You can check out our review here.

[Via FoneArena]

RIM continues its launch spree in India with the introduction of three new handsets. The first two belong to the affordable Curve range (9350, 9380) whereas one is from the top Bold series (9790). All BlackBerry devices run BlackBerry OS 7 and comes with usual set of features like the new BBM, Social Feeds, NFC, GPS, improved browser and more.

The Curve 9350 features a full QWERTY keyboard along with an optical trackpad, Wi-Fi, 5MP camera and a microSD card slot supporting up to 32GB. Supporting the Curve range is 9380, which is the first Curve device to sport an all-touchscreen form factor. It has a 3.2-inch display, optical trackpad, 800MHz CPU, 5MP camera and microSD card slot.

Finally the Bold 9790 features a 480×360 2.45-inch touchscreen support, QWERTY keyboard, 1GHz processor, 5MP camera, 8GB internal memory and microSD card support.

All the devices are expected to be available from the first week of December for a price of Rs. 20,990 for both the Curve handsets and Rs. 27,490 for Bold 9790.

It seems BlackBerry Colt won’t be the first BBX-based device to make its way out. According to the latest grapevine, RIM has reportedly scrapped Colt for London. The image comes by way of The Verge but BGR seems to have more details on the launch, which they believe to be sometime in Q3 next year. That is a long wait but BGR says RIM is still working on bringing native BES and BBM to BBX and is the likely cause of delay.

Nevertheless, the phone is rumored to be powered by a TI OMAP 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, 8MP rear facing and 2MP front facing camera.

RIM today announced two new BlackBerry devices running BlackBerry 7 OS. Targeting the higher-end of the market will be Bold 9790 and Curve 9380 aiming at the lower-end. BlackBerry Bold 9790 has a 1GHz processor at the heart and comes with a 2.45-inch touchscreen display with 480×360 pixel support, 5MP camera, NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 8GB internal storage and microSD card slot supporting up to 32GB.

The Curve 9380 on the other hand is the first Curve device to go the touchscreen way. The Curve 9380 features a 800MHz CPU, a 3.2-inch display, 5MP camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC and more.

Both the phones are expected to launch globally in the coming weeks.

Press Release

RIM’s Alec Saunders divulged some important info about the upcoming BBX platform, which is a crossover platform to bridge the existing BlackBerry features with QNX OS. Saunders says BBX phones will break away from the looks of its high-end Bold phones but will retain all BlackBerry’s core features.

Apart from the looks, the most important thing revealed by Saunders is the display, which will boast a resolution of 1024×600 pixels with 16:9 aspect ratio, similar to that of BlackBerry PlayBook. From a PlayBook developers’ standpoint, this is good news because the apps developed for PlayBook will be compatible with BBX.

The first BBX smartphone is rumored to be BlackBerry Colt expected in the first quarter of next year.

[Via PC Mag]

One common complaint amongst BlackBerry users is that most BlackBerry candybar devices look strikingly similar, right from the low-end to the high-end. However, it won’t be the case with the new P’9981 that just went official in UAE. Designed by Porsche Design, the phone has a pretty unique look and comes in a nice stainless steel frame, leather back-cover, exclusive Porsche Design UI and newly designed QWERTY keyboard. The phone will also have a premium, exclusive PIN for easy identification of a P’9981 user.

The phone runs on BlackBerry OS 7 and has a decent set of hardware like 1.2GHz processor, 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen display, 5MP camera with 720p HD video recording support, GPS, dual-band Wi-Fi, 8GB internal memory with microSD card slot, Liquid Graphics and NFC.

There’s no word on the price but it will be available at Porsche Design stores later this year.

Product Page

RIM has confirmed the release date of PlayBook’s much awaited OS 2.0. The update that will bring some goodies like Android apps support will be released sometime in February 2012. RIM failed to divulge the exact reason but claimed they’ll launch the OS after they’re “confident [to] have met expectations of developers, enterprise customers and end-users.”

If the four-month wait was not enough, RIM also confirmed to exclude BBM from the PlayBook 2.0 OS update. RIM’s reasoning to delay the inclusion is because they’re working on the seamless BBM solution but for now, BBM users will have use BlackBerry Bridge to use BBM on their tablet.

[Via BB Blog]