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RIM to continue supporting BlackBerry OS 7 as BlackBerry 10 rolls out

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By Alan Friedman

Published: Dec 21, 2012, 1:11 AM

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BlackBerry Software updates

RIM to continue supporting BlackBerry OS 7 as BlackBerry 10 rolls out

BB OS 7 runs the BlackBerry Bold 9930

Perhaps the Mayan calendar was interpreted incorrectly. If you're reading this, the end of the world did not take place, at least for PhoneArena readers. But just maybe, the Mayan calendar was all about BlackBerry OS 7 and was warning us that once BlackBerry 10 is launched, BlackBerry OS 7 will die. Well, if the Mayans did mean to warn us about the impeding doom for BlackBerry OS 7, they got that one wrong as well. During Thursday night's conference call following the release of fiscal Q3 earnings, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins made it clear that RIM will continue to support BlackBerry OS 7.

Heins says that RIM still has a "significant R&D team" working on the software, and the continued success of the platform in the Asia Pacific market gives the Canadian manufacturer a reason to continue supporting the OS build. Heins also hinted for the first time that the legacy models might be cut in price and sold to cover a lower end price point. He even hinted that BB10 hardware could be sold with BB OS 7 inside, "...because for those messaging-oriented markets, it’s an exciting platform and its a really perfect platform."

"So just to be very clear, we will not just kind of stop BB7 from being supported. We have a significant R&D team working and continuing to work on BB7. And you just saw us innovating on BB7 as well when we announced the BBM voice capability. So we will maintain BB7. There is a strong success with BB7 devices in the Asia Pac markets. And as you can see on the devices that we’re launching with BB10, you can probably get an idea of in which price points they fit."

"So no, we will support those on-boarding, entry-level smartphone markets. We will continue to support them with BlackBerry 7, and you might expect us to even build one of the other new products based on BlackBerry 7. Because for those messaging-oriented markets, it’s an exciting platform and its a really perfect platform."-Thorsten Heins, CEO, RIM

source: Crackberry

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.

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