RIM Bets on BlackBerry Without Keyboard to Challenge Apple
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When Research In Motion Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins unveiled a prototype of the new BlackBerry 10 phone yesterday, it lacked a feature that has kept legions of users loyal to the platform: a physical keyboard.
At the BlackBerry World expo in Orlando, Florida, he showed off a sleek touch-screen device that more closely resembled an iPhone or Android smartphone than the keypad-equipped BlackBerrys of old. While RIM still plans to produce models with keyboards, the demonstration was the biggest signal yet that the company was shifting to a touch-screen world.