RIM to Release BlackBerry 10 Alpha to App Developers

Research in Motion is preparing for tomorrow’s earnings announcement, which is widely expected to confirm Wall Street’s dismal expectations.

RIM previously postponed its annual investor presentation – usually revealed during the Blackberry World in May — until it launches the BlackBerry 10 later this year. The new Blackberry is expected to use faster and more efficient chipsets, but will rely on the same OS used in the disappointing Playbook.

RIM plans to give alpha versions of the BlackBerry 10 to attendees of Blackberry World so they can begin developing applications. The Register’s Bill Ray observes:

It needs to do that, considering how many of them are going to have to rewrite their applications which were developed for existing, Java-based BlackBerry handsets. The QNX-based BlackBerry 10 will need applications written in C++, using Qt – or WebWorks for the AJAX crowd – while those still sitting on the fence can use the Android runtime or even resort to a bit of Adobe AIR to get their apps working.

I wonder whether all that development effort is going to be worth it. Analysts now talk about RIM’s future in terms of “respite” as opposed to “resurgence.” Stranger things than a BlackBerry resurgence have happened in the past, of course, but developers have already shown the iOS and Android worlds are more attractive.