Research in Motion will release six devices based on its new BlackBerry 10 operating system this year, the Canadian company’s chief marketing officer told FierceWireless.com at the CES conference this week.
"We intend over time as we transition the portfolio to have a full range of devices," Frank Boulben told the news website. He said that RIM will launch devices that are priced for the high, middle and lower range of the market.
Boulben added that BBX will launch with at least 70,000 applications, has "strong" developer support and will support 90% of the 600 most popular apps from other platforms.
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BBX, which is currently being tested by 150 carriers worldwide, will be launched globally on 30 January. According to Boulben, two of the six new BlackBerry handsets will be revealed at launch, one touch-screen device and one that has a physical ‘Qwerty’ keyboard.
RIM would not confirm Boulben’s comments.
In December, O2 announced on Twitter it would be selling BBX-powered devices in "early 2013". EE also confirmed it would be offering the platform to consumer and business customers with availability to be announced in due course.
While Vodafone declined to comment on whether it would be supporting BBX, a spokesperson said an update on the matter would be available on its website "soon".
The platform was awarded US security clearance in November when it achieved the FIPS 140 standard, enabling government agencies to deploy it upon release.
The company hopes BBX will reverse its fortunes after revealing it lost subscribers for the first time in December, when they fell by one million since 1 September.
