Research in Motion has launched the BlackBerry 10 ‘Ready Program’ to help enterprise customers prepare for the release of its new mobile operating system next month.

"We remain committed to our enterprise customers and want to provide them with a head start on understanding the power of BlackBerry 10 and preparing their existing environments for the new mobile computing platform," said Bryan Lee, RIM’s senior director of enterprise.

The programme includes a trade-in offer for licences of its Enterprise Server back-end system. Businesses that buy BlackBerrys based on the new operating system will be able to trade their existing Enterprise Server licences for the new version from January.

A BlackBerry 10 Readiness Service will provide customers with change management and planning tools, and applications development advice.

Through its BlackBerry 10 Ready Offer, RIM said BlackBerry customers subscribed to its technical support of ‘Avantage level’ or higher are eligible for a free BlackBerry 10 smartphone. 

The company will also share information and answer questions about the new operating systems via a series of webcasts.

RIM hopes the business features on BBX, which only runs on its new smartphones, will persuade enterprise users to make the switch from Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems.

Even as it prepares for the make-or-break launch of BBX, though, RIM could not shake its recent spate of bad news.

Earlier this week the Coventry Telegraph reported that RIM is investigating after an 11-year-old boy was injured after his BlackBerry Curve 9320 mobile phone burst into flames.

Kiean McCreath was taken to hospital after suffering burns to his leg when the phone combusted and set fire to his bed mattress.