Usually when a technology company is about to make a major announcement, it sends out a "save the date" email to members of the media a few weeks in advance. Today, Research in Motion broke with that tradition by announcing in a general press release that it will be holding launch events for its BlackBerry 10 OS on January 30th in "multiple" locations around the world, over two months from now.
The press release states that RIM will offer more details on BlackBerry 10 as well as the first official look at the company"s first two smartphones that will use the OS. The company will also share information on when these new smartphones will become available to the public. There have already been Internet leaks that reportedly show off these devices, one with a physical keyboard and one with a touch screen interface.
RIM also announced today that BlackBerry 10 has now received FIPS 140-2 certification. That means governments will be able to start using smartphones with the OS as soon as they are available. The company said, "This marks the first time BlackBerry products have been certified ahead of their launch."
RIM needs for BlackBerry 10 to be a success. It"s current and older smartphones have lost a ton of market share to iOS and to Android products. The company suffered a loss of $235 million in its last fiscal quarter.
Source: RIM press release | Image via RIM