On the phone front, we’ve already told you the rumored BlackBerry 10 slider ‘Milan’ has been cancelled, but we speculate it will be rebirthed later. The first BlackBerry 10 device release looks to be getting pushed back (from the rumored May release), which makes us wonder if we’ll only see one BlackBerry 10 device release in 2012. We’re still unsure what is to come of the other rumored BlackBerry 10 devices. You can also expect at least two more Curves in 2012, but these will be targeted only to the East Asia and Africa markets.
Here’s a breakdown of what we’re hearing:
  • 10″ PlayBook releasing in December 2012, will be LTE enabled
  • 7″ PlayBook releasing in April 2012, will be 3G+ (will not be LTE due to chipset)
  • First BlackBerry 10 phone releasing in September 2012
  • PlayBook OS 2.0 releasing end of February 2012
  • Mobile Fusion releasing in April 2012
  • PlayBook Admin Service releasing in Summer 2012
  • Two new Curves for emerging markets. One Curve will be 2G only.
Many were hopeful we would see a BlackBerry 10 device announcement at BlackBerry World in May. We may very well see something, but from what we’ve heard ‘if’ we do it may be in similar fashion as the first PlayBook (behind glass). It’s more likely we’ll only see the new 7″ PlayBook with OS 2.0 at BlackBerry World.