Bangalore February 11 2013: BlackBerry has launched BlackBerry 10, the re-designed, re-engineered, and re-invented BlackBerry platform that created a new mobile computing experience for millions. Available on two new LTE-enabled smartphones, the BlackBerry Z10 (all-touch) and BlackBerry Q10 (touch with physical keyboard) smartphones powered by BlackBerry 10 offers a faster, smarter and smoother experience.

BlackBerry unveiled the new BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones at  recent events held simultaneously in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Dubai, and Johannesburg.

The phone has also come to India – a country which may carve out a special space in the Blackberry’s future, as a hotbed of  app development around the new platform.  In a wider sense too, The head of Blackberry’s software portfolio, the Indian-origin  Vivek Bhardwaj is being seen as the face of BlackBerry 10.

We have not a chance to try out the phone and wont presume to judge – but we have linked  media stories that highlight the Indian angle and the Indian experience

DEVICE DETAILS The BlackBerry Z10 is a full-touch device that comes with a 4.2-inch LCD screen with a 1280x768 resolution at 356 dpi (dots per inch). It runs on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system and is powered by a dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus processor that clocks at 1.5GHz alongside 2GB of RAM.

The internal storage available on the smartphone is 16GB. The hot swappable microSD slot can carry up to 64GB. It has a 8-megapixel rear camera that can capture 1080p videos and 2-megapixel camera in the front. If offers 720p HD video recording. It comes with an accelerometer, magnetometer, proximity sensor, gyroscope, and an ambient light sensor. The BlackBerry Z10 (and full-QWERTY BlackBerry Q10) smartphones will come both in white as well as black.Models of the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 handset will be available from carriers in India  to support their respective 4G LTE or HSPA+ networks, and all the available models include connectivity support for global roaming.

Fourteen-time Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter and entrepreneur, Alicia Keys has been appointed BlackBerry’s new Global Creative Director. She will lead an array of new business initiatives that will drive engagement with BlackBerry and perception of the brand to ‘Keep Moving’, says BlackBerry President and CEO Thorsten Heins.

APPS: The apps available for BB 10 are a cany mix of work and play functions. Business and Productivity  of Blackberry 10 include Bloomberg, Box, Cisco WebEx Meetings, Citrix Podio, CNBC, Dictionary.com, IBM Notes Traveler, RBC, RBS, SAP, TD Bank Group and Thomson Reuters

Media: Absolute Radio, Al Jazeera, Astral Radio, BBC Worldwide, Channel 4, E! Online, AFP News, Amazon Kindle, CBC, Economist, Leo Dictionary, MailOnline, Maxim, News24, New York Times, PressReader, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, The London Evening Standard, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal

Social:  Badoo, Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, ooVoo, Skype, Tuenti Social Messenger, Twitter, Viber, Whatsapp and Xing

Gaming : Where’s My Water? and Where’s My Perry? Angry Birds Classic, Angry Birds Star Wars, Angry Bids Space and Angry Birds Seasons, Jetpack Joyride, Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope, The Sims FreePlay, Monoply Millionaire, Asphalt 7: Heat, The Amazing Spider-Man, Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour, The Dark Knight Rises

RIM now known as Blackberry : ReutersChief Executive Thorsten Heins announced that RIM was abandoning the name it has used since its inception in 1985 to take the name of its signature product. "From this point forward, RIM becomes BlackBerry," Heins said at the New York launch. "It is one brand; it is one promise."Ten Things about Blackberry 10 Business Standard

BlackBerry 10: What BlackBerry needs to do in India: Reuters in Times of India
Blackberry must chart a tough course in its two key emerging markets of India and Indonesia: quickly launch cheaper handsets to woo lower-end subscribers while restoring its tattered brand among the countries' status-conscious.
Will BlackBerry 10 give Kochi a global head start?  Economic Times
For the only southern state that missed the boom in Indian IT almost completely, Kerala has a lot riding on the future of BlackBerry 10. On its own, the Ontario, Canada-based firm hopes that the efforts made by 20-somethings at the BlackBerry Innovation Zone in Kochi's Startup Village will help it redeem lost time and market share.
.Behind BlackBerry's do-or-die makeover is an Indian name  Financial Express
As the 14-year-old BlackBerry launched its make-or-break product Wednesday evening, all eyes were on a 29-year-old: Vivek Bhardwaj. The head of Research in Motion’s software portfolio, the Indian-origin Bhardwaj is the face of BlackBerry 10