BlackBerry’s more recent smartphones have been targeting faithful fans who love their physical keyboards, but the Canadian company hasn’t given up on full-touch phones just yet. A high-end handset codenamed “Rio” is reportedly set to make its debut in 2015. BlackBerry’s full-touch smartphones haven’t exactly been the saviors the company was hoping for. Although they may have persuaded some BlackBerry fans to give up real keyboards, they’ve done very little to persuade those using rival platforms to make the switch to BB10.
Earlier in the year, I postulated that BlackBerry would likely not focus on a high-end all-touch device. The assessment was heavily scrutinized. A Z30 successor was increasingly anticipated by many customers in the beginning of the year. The revealed 2014 global roadmap later corroborated the assessment, solidifying the notion customers seeking a new high-end all-touch BlackBerry would unfortunately have to continue their wait indefinitely. However, today, I am happy to exclusively reveal BlackBerry is in fact working on a new high-end all-touch codenamed “Rio.” You may have seen me tease it over Twitter or in our latest N4BB Live webcast as the “Jesus phone” given it’s codename (think: Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Is the Rio an evolution of the once rumored “Ontario” device many have dubbed the Z50? Perhaps. Details, specs, or otherwise any other specifics surrounding the “Savior” slate device are slim at this time. In fact, the Rio project is essentially in it’s infancy stage. Although, hopefully it comes to fruition by 2015 and does not meet the same fate as the “Manitoba” Z3 LTE (which has pretty much been canceled).
