Research In Motion Ltd (BBRY): Time to Harvest a New BlackBerry?

Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) may have been in the shadows of the tech world for the last several years, but while its BlackBerry phones have continued to exist and be used in the enterprise and public sector, there has been a need for an annual conference for fans, developers and others who are loyal to the BlackBerry brand.

There is Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) I/O, the Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), and there is BlackBerry Live by Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY). The latter is kicking off its three-day conference Tuesday morning in Orlando, Fla., with CEO Thorsten Heins giving the keynote address first thing this morning (at about 9 a.m. Eastern). In past years, admittedly, this hasn’t been a big deal – certainly not in financial circles, or in terms of the market.

But with BlackBerry seeing somewhat of a resurgence in the smartphone market of late since the launch of the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, it’s quite possible that Heins’ talk this morning could be one of the more-watched addresses by the head of a tech company in quite a while.

Image: Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)

One of the main points it seems that people will be listening for from Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is not just confirmation, but an actual launch announcement of a new, cheaper QWERTY handset called the R10, which we first heard about a few days before. A couple of different sources are noting rumors that this new handset – primarily designed to get BlackBerrry into the mid-range price point of smartphones – was going to be announced at BlackBerry Live and may be hitting store shelves in the next couple of weeks. Since we don’t have the text of what Heins will say, we will likely just have to wait like everyone else to see if that rumor does in fact come to fruition.

What are your thoughts about Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) offering a mid-range QWERTY keyboard phone as part of its BlackBerry 10 lineup? Do you see the company returning to success with the keyboard, and do you think a keyboard will have a positive response at that price point? Give us your feedback in the comments section below.

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