With BlackBerry 10’s Launch Fast Approaching, RIM Offers A First Glimpse At The Hardware

While I’m sure some people are religiously counting the days until RIM finally shows off its first batch of BlackBerry 10 devices, the company has whipped up a little something that it hopes will get everyone else’s juices flowing, too. RIM recently posted a teaser image of a forthcoming BB10 smartphone to its BlackBerry 10 landing page. But don’t expect too much to drool over — the teaser photo doesn’t show off much more than the device’s rear end.

Those of you looking forward to a rehash of the company’s Dev Alpha hardware may not be completely off the mark, but RIM has apparently decided to mix things up a bit with a textured rear plate that bears a passing resemblance to that of Google’s Nexus 7. Judging by the device’s dimensions, we’re almost certainly looking at the all-touch L series BlackBerry, which RIM has said will debut ahead of a more traditional model with a physical QWERTY keyboard in 2013.

For all of the trials RIM has had to face in 2012, these past few weeks been surprisingly kind to the ailing smartphone maker. The company’s stock price has slowly been recovering after a series of dramatic dips that coincided with some rough earnings releases, and Goldman Sachs raised its rating of the company from “neutral” to “buy” at the end of November. For what it’s worth, I think BlackBerry 10 has plenty of potential. After mucking around with a few early builds, it’s clear that it’s a distinct step forward from BlackBerry OS of old and that quite a bit of thought has gone into the interface.

What isn’t clear yet is whether or not it has the oomph to take on Windows Phone 8 for the third-place crown, thanks mostly to a dearth of details on RIM’s part. Thankfully it won’t be much longer before the Waterloo-based company fully reveals what it’s been working on, at which point the smartphone war will begin anew.