Alec Saunders, RIM’s VP Developer Relations, is one of the most enthusiastic execs I’ve seen. He joined the company late September 2011 and has been fearlessly leading the dev team ever since. At BlackBerry World 2012 he proudly presented the vision for BlackBerry 10 with a promo video to developers that stated “waiting is the hardest part” and “Android and iOS they are no go for you!”
RIM shocked many this week by announcing the release of their new BlackBerry 10 OS would be delayed until Q1 2013, this was due to “a large volume of incoming code.” Not the best news as RIM has been on a 23 city tour promoting the OS to developers. Over 5,000 BB10 Alpha devices have been seeded and many devs are praising their experience, which is mainly the speed of which they can build apps in the BB10 OS.
Additional rumours surfaced yesterday that Microsoft was interested in dropping some cash into RIM, potentially leaning towards a future powered by Windows Phone 8. However, late last night Saunders took to the company blog to calm the community and state “We’re committed.”
Saunders said “When we in the Developer Relations group were informed of the news, our first thoughts were with you – our development community – who are continuing to work with us to build great new applications for BlackBerry 10. You’ve got businesses to run, rent to pay, and investors to answer to. You are the folks who have skin in the game now, and aren’t just waiting for a new phone personally. We know this delay affects you, and we’re sorry… Despite yesterday’s announcement, I want you to know that we remain strongly committed to you. While RIM continues to work towards the launch of BlackBerry 10, our engagement levels and plans for our joint success have not changed… We are committed to this launch, and to continuing to work with you to make this launch a success. We will work to ensure that the launch is executed brilliantly, with a complete platform that delivers the best experience for our customers.”
It’s a respectable piece and even during the most turbulent time at the company – stock price is now a low $7.39 and their market cap is $3.81B – he’s committed to delivering the OS, plus more determined to help people make great apps and revenue.
Yes, waiting for BlackBerry 10 to arrive is the hardest part.
Source: RIM
