Leaked images of RIM’s BB10; it will save it from RIP, but is it an iPhone 5-killer?

BlackBerry-maker Research-in-Motion’s BB10 is, arguably, one of the best the company has manufactured till date, and analysts expect the phone-maker, which has consistently lost market share to leaders Samsung and Apple over the past few years, to hit the road to recovery with this device.

RIM will be launching the new BB10 device on January 30, 2013, and is reportedly reinventing itself to cater to the needs of a wider customer base. The Ontario-based firm is hoping to catch the attention of gamers with the new BB10 software platform.

Vietnamese website Tinhte.vn has leaked the images of what it claims is the new BB10 smartphone, and by the looks of it, the new BlackBerry is a killer.

And RIM is working hard to counter its one major folly so far – the lack of user-friendly apps for BB devices. The company has reportedly procured the services of about 28,000 developers to design apps for Blackberry 10 – including those for play.

BlackBerry stuck gold last decade with its BBM instant messenger and email app, which of course attracted a number of corporate users. However, with the launch and development of rival platforms such as Android and iOS, lack of innovation left BlackBerry far, far behind.

Now, it is trying to pull all stops to get back among the big boys, and is hard at work to mix play in the all-work equation that BlackBerry is perceived to offer.

Will it succeed in getting the respect it thinks it demands? Probably yes, but the new BB10 doesn’t seem to be the iPhone 5-killer that RIM will be hoping it is.

For one, BlackBerry is hopelessly lagging in the apps division – yes, it is working on it, now, but it will take a long time for it to catch up with apps offered by Google’s Android platform and Apple’s iOS even of the rivals don’t add anything to their arsenal from now on.

Trouble is, the competition is still running much faster than BlackBerry’s new, faster pace in the apps department.

Until BlackBerry actually reveals the device, here are some of the leaked images that Tinh Te has. And there’s a YouTube video to boot .

As with all rumours and leaks, remember that nothing is official until it becomes official.

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