RIM finally announces BlackBerry 10 launch date

Research in Motion has finally named a launch date for its next-generation BlackBerry 10 platform, with the official launch date set for January 30 next year.

The date has been confirmed in an official press release from RIM CEO Thorsten Heins, along with a post on the company’s official blog site.

The launch event will feature the unveiling of the first two BlackBerry 10 devices, with one anticipated to feature a traditional BlackBerry keyboard layout and the other predominantly featuring a touchscreen interface, similar to Apple’s iPhone and most Android smartphones.

One of the key features of the new devices will be BlackBerry Hub, which will integrate users’ calendars, messages, notifications and feeds.

The company is also promising a new user interface, called Blackberry Flow, which it promises will offer seamless navigation between open applications and the BlackBerry Hub.

Finally, the company has announced a feature called BlackBerry Balance, which will allow users to have both a “user profile” and “work profile”, with separate apps and data in each profile. The company claims that data and apps in the work profile will be fully encrypted and secured, making it difficult for malicious apps in the user profile to undermine the security of work apps.

RIM promises that users will be able to switch between their user profile and work profile with a simple gesture.