January 30 was a big day for the company formerly known as RIM. It changed its name to BlackBerry, and then it unveiled its long-anticipated new operating system, BlackBerry 10 (BB10), and new smartphones based on the OS.
“Today represents a new day in the history of BlackBerry,” BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins told the crowd. “Two years ago, we had to make a very serious decision: adopt somebody else’s platform or build a whole new one. And we made the tough call to go it alone.”
During the launch event, speakers touted the high number of apps available for BB10–70,000. According to the company, that’s the most apps any mobile development platform has ever had at its launch.
The new BlackBerry phones will go on sale this week in the U.K., but the U.S. market will have to wait until March.
