It has been tough going for Canadian mobile phone manufacturer Research in Motion for the last few years. Facing extreme competition from other smartphone manufacturers, their once-loved BlackBerry phones have been mocked as unpopular and lacking in innovation. To add to their woes, their earnings have not been too encouraging as well.

Experts are of the view that it is do or die time for BlackBerry and executives at RIM seem pretty confident about delivering the goods and turning fortunes around for the company.

Leading from the front in his first conference as the new RIM CEO, Thorsten Heins presented the new and eagerly anticipated BlackBerry 10 operating system running on the new BlackBerry phone prototype during BlackBerry World 2012 event in Orlando, Florida. Since the device is a prototype, it is still not final and actual specifications are being kept under wraps by RIM.

Although, most of BlackBerry’s previous handsets featured its trademark physical QWERTY keyboards, the new BlackBerry smartphone surprisingly deviates from the tradition and offers a modern touchscreen QWERTY keyboard with an amazing new feature that suggests full words above the next anticipated letters as you type. The desired word can then be easily selected by a single touch, thus saving the user precious time and effort.

The following image will give you an idea of how this exciting new feature works.

As the cornerstone of RIM’s recovery is going to be the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, Heins is trying to woo developers to create apps for it. In view of the situation, BlackBerry has also released tools required by app developers to get them started including a new App Generator powered by Mippin that will let users and developers make new apps easily, which can then be shared for free or sold through BlackBerry App World.

Given these fabulous and about-time developments, fans can expect good things from the Canadian phone maker in the near future. The new BlackBerry smartphone along with BlackBerry 10 operating system is expected to be available later this year. It promises to be a complete smartphone for everyone and is certain to give popular business phones a run for their money as well.

Here’s a sneak peek for all BlackBerry fans:

Source: BlackBerry World 2012 via MercuryNews | Mippin Blog