It's coming, in October, with the BlackBerry London. Apparently.
That's a bit out of date - both BB10 and the industrial design previewed on the London concept above, and the Porsche Design P'9981 by BlackBerry, have been refined since then. Here's a more up to date image from February:
Right, I'm terribly sorry to hijack this thread with such a long diatribe, but this kind of thing pisses me off. The way that speaks about BlackBerry tells me that he has a lot of love for it - which is great; every platform needs its evangelists. But I fear some rose-tinted spectacles are in use here, and I think a shot of objectivity is needed to balance this weird perception that the Evil Media are picking on poor ickle BwackBewwy.
If this doesn't interest you in any way, please scroll past.
They NEVER said they were leaving the consumer market. Watching that unfold on the news was painful, the news outlets are just looking for any reason to give RIM a hard time at the moment. The comment it all came from was when they said there was no point chasing a consumer market by developing their own movie rental store and music store... because they're getting 7digital and Amazon to do it for them instead! They never suggested quitting the consumer market.
Nowhere near as painful as watching RIM dig its own grave over the last year.
You're a bit naive if you think that almost every news outlet covering the story drew their conclusions from one throwaway comment. The entire earnings call was built around language that described RIM's decision to "refocus" on its business and enterprise offerings, to "build on its strengths" in those spaces, to no longer try to be "everyone's darling or all things to all people".
The language used placed a very clear emphasis on RIM no longer doing what got it into this mess - this mess that's seen the company lose 80% of its value in a year, and where the markets no longer believe the company is worth even as much as the sum of its parts (i.e. its stock is trading below book value) - along with the repeated claims that the company was 'refocusing' on business, restructuring around what people know them to be good for, and not doing more of the same, left pretty much everyone with a very clear understanding that RIM was now establishing itself around business (its strengths), and that consumer markets (universally agreed to be a massive weakness in its product line-up) would be abandoned.
The lack of any strong language or definition of any real plan with regards to building relevance in the consumer market reinforced this perception further.
Yes, if you dig down and analyse the transcripts in detail, you will find references here and there to consumer experiences and consumer markets - although RIM has a habit of using "consumer experience" and "user experience" interchangeably, particularly in reference to its new BlackBerry 10 operating system - but when the clear message being repeated and reinforced was about focusing on business, building on strengths, and ditching what hasn't been working for them, it's disingenous to suggest that the news outlets are to blame for taking away the wrong message. The message was poorly articulated, which is why a clarification had to be issued the following day.
A few hours after the end of the earnings call, a correspondent on BBC World News' Asia Business Report spoke with a senior RIM Asia executive (I'm sorry that I don't know the name of either the correspondent or the exec - it was around 2:30am by that point, and I was getting ready to get some sleep...), but the RIM executive said nothing at that point to clarify the perception that RIM would no longer be bothering with consumer-focused devices.
When clarification came, the next day, Patrick Spence - RIM's MD for Global Sales & Regional Marketing - had this to say:
"The claim that RIM has said it will withdraw from the consumer market is wholly inaccurate. While we announced plans to re-focus our efforts on our core strengths, and on our enterprise customer base, we were very explicit that we will continue to build on our strengths to go after targeted consumer segments. We listed BBM, as well as the security and manageability of our platform, among these strengths."
The contradictions in RIM's position are again evident here. First of all, we're told that we were wrong. Why? Because while we were right to report that RIM is refocusing its efforts on its "core strengths and enterprise customer base", we're also told that RIM will use those strengths - specifically "BBM, as well as the security and manageability of our platform" to build better products for certain consumer markets.
What? BBM is nice, but if it was half as compelling for consumers as RIM believes, consumers wouldn't be deserting the platform in droves - shipments down 21% and revenues down 19% on the previous quarter; revenues down 25% year-on-year. Consumers want exciting app experiences, intuitive interfaces, eye-candy, superlative specs and hardware design. BBM doesn't fill all of those gaps - and neither does "security and manageability". Ask a consumer who's considering an iPhone, an Android, even a Windows Phone, what matters to them, and see how many people cite the "security and manageability" of the platform as even being a factor in their decision.
When we reported on RIM's apparent decision to exit the consumer market, there was actually a glimmer of hope that RIM might finally get it, that it might finally understand that it's unlikely to succeed in the consumer space. Its users are abandoning it in huge numbers; its products are same-again and poorly differentiated (even within its own product range, never mind the broader market); it repeatedly misses its own internal deadlines for delivery (BlackBerry 10 is months behind schedule); it delivers products that don't even recognise its own strengths (like the PlayBook which shipped without a native email client - the one USP that everyone can agree on as being RIM/BlackBerry's 'thing' - and delivered the 2.0 software update months late, in February 2012, after originally promising to deliver it last summer). The overwhelming majority of people realise that RIM doesn't 'get' consumers, and the earnings call, with its impressive talk of refocusing on what made RIM great, and building on its strengths, and ditching what doesn't work, and not trying to be a jack of all trades, all delivered the very clear message that RIM would do one thing, and do it bloody well.
That the message was misunderstood isn't down to some industry or media bias, a determination to kick RIM while its down, and I'm frankly sick to fucking death of hearing that 'rationalisation' being used. If anything, "the media" were relieved to see RIM finally get its act together. There was enormous shock that RIM had finally found the balls to make such big decisions under its new CEO, but beyond the very realistic reporting on everything that RIM has got wrong, there was no sense of kicking it while it was down.
The sheer weight of negative reporting towards RIM isn't because we all hate the company - it's because there's nothing good to report. When we get excited about a new product like the PlayBook, they fuck it up by abandoning their strengths and focusing it somewhere between consumer and business, but failing to satisfactorily meet the needs of either customer. When we get excited about a whole new operating system, they fuck it up, first with an embarrassing name change ('BBX' was already taken, but nobody bothered to check that, so we'll now have a leap from BlackBerry 7 to BlackBerry 10), and then with a series of delays (by all accounts, the first BBX devices should have already been on sale now). When we get excited about a change in business policy, it turns out they fucked that up too - claiming that they'll 'focus' on the one thing that they're good at (business and enterprise experiences), except that there'll be no such 'focus', because they're sticking with consumer markets too, but only in the most half-arsed way (targeting only certain consumer markets, and not actually innovating in consumer experiences, but trying to take what works for business/enterprise and shoe-horn it into a consumer device).
(Oh, and by the by, RIM's claim that it will pursue 'targeted consumer segments' just means that they're not going to abandon those markets - such as Indonesia and the UK - where consumers do buy BlackBerrys in significant numbers.)
It's not a question of poor reporting or industry/media bias. When RIM delivers some good news, it's fair to say that we'll be all over it. Until then, the only party to blame for how badly RIM is perceived is RIM.
I should just add that these are my personal opinions. I can't speak for anyone else, nor for the industry or The Evil Media at large - but I certainly believe that they're an accurate reflection of how things are right now.
*diatribe ends*
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Critique:
I'm genuinely relieved to hear that you're not going to get another BlackBerry for now. There's a lot of promise in BB10 - but RIM's promises have proven exceptionally hollow over the last eighteen months, and I wouldn't recommend holding off for BB10 until people outside of RIM or BlackBerry fan sites have had a chance to use it and deliver an objective verdict.
The iPhone is probably the best all-rounder on the market right now; don't feel compelled to get the iPhone 4S, though - the iPhone 4 is just as good for the vast majority of user scenarios, and you'll save a bit of cash by going for that option over its newer sibling.
There are some excellent Android devices out there right now; the best is probably the Galaxy Nexus, although it's not to everyone's tastes. Samsung's Galaxy S II is a fantastic choice, and many will agree that in the Android ecosystem, it's the natural choice for a sensibly-priced, extremely capable handset; it's also receiving the latest OS update - Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich - right now. The new HTC One series devices are also very impressive - although I've not used one personally, so I can't recommend them from experience.
If you're considering Windows Phone, there's really only one sensible choice right now, and that's the Nokia Lumia 800. Lovely design, snappy performance, lots of genuinely useful value-added software (like the free Music, Drive and Transport apps) and excellent build quality.
However... on both the Android and Windows Phone front, I'd say that now is probably a bad time to buy. Both platforms have massive new updates coming later this year - Android 5.0 Jelly Bean and Windows Phone 8 - both of which are expected to bring some significant advancements which may not be available to earlier handsets. So while an Android or Windows Phone that you buy today will still receive updates, the 'complete' experience will likely only be available on the newest devices on sale from around September/October.
My suggestion would be to get an interim handset for a few months - there are some great Androids available for £150-£200 off-contract, and Nokia's Lumia 710 Windows Phone (cheaper and not quite as pretty as the 800, but with similar specs) is available off-contract for as little as £170; or just grab a second-hand handset from eBay - and then consider your options a little later in the year. The next iPhone will likely also be available around the same time as the next-gen Androids and Windows Phones are available, so you'll have plenty of choices to consider!
Given that you'll be renewing your contract at some point - locking you into two years with the same device - it's best not to rush into anything. You may even find that all your needs are perfectly satisfied with your interim device, in which you'll be able to negotiate a much cheaper SIM-only tariff with your current network, or even take your business elsewhere - for example, to giffgaff with its super-cheap monthly 'goodybags' and unlimited mobile internet.