BlackBerry Flagship Store Coming To Dubai



While RIM's current fortunes are making plenty of execs nervously tug at their ties, there's still plenty of people cheerfully tapping away on BlackBerry keyboards, especially in the Middle East. It makes at least some sense, then, to launch a big ole' flagship shop in Dubai. Teaming up with local carrier Axiom Telecom, the handset manufacturer is in the final negotiation stages for a 1,500 square-foot store. According to RIM, it's the first of several planned for the region and should mean plenty of places to snap up one of those expensive BlackBerry Porsche models on your next overseas trip.

What’s Coming From RIM BlackBerry In 2012

While RIM showed only a small glimpse of the future BlackBerry offerings in 2012, we’ve gathered some new information regarding a few products to expect. RIM will be expanding its tablet portfolio to two devices in 2012. Originally, the 10″ PlayBook projected was cancelled as RIM focused more on developing QNX into what is now BlackBerry 10. They’re even planning to roll out another 7″ tablet.

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.