BlackBerry X10 spotted on Instagram

Look through Instagram on any given day and you will find some unique photographs. For example, search for #BlackBerry10, and you will find a couple of pictures of the BlackBerry X10. This phone is beginning to look very interesting with the Bold-esque form factor and QWERTY keyboard. The picture is of a prototype as you can see the "NOT FOR SALE" message on the bottom of the phone.

The BlackBerry X10 as seen on Instagram

Assuming that the actual production models look like the prototypes we have seen, which model do you go for? The all-touch BlackBerry Z10 or the physical QWERTY enabled BlackBerry X10? While it is great to see the two devices exude a sleek modern look, beauty is more than skin deep. The BlackBerry 10 OS is going to have to at the least, catch up with Android and iOS. And that might not be enough. One area of excitement is the BlackBerry Browser which has outperformed mobile Safari and other mobile browsers during various benchmark tests. Years ago, RIM had said it wanted to build a world-class browser and it looks like it is now a reality.

Things like the quantity and quality of apps, battery life, responsiveness of the OS are all things that will need to be discovered quickly. Merely giving smartphone owners the featurs and capabilities they have already will not be enough to make them change. RIM needs to come to that event on January 30th armed with something new that we have not seen before from any other phone or mobile platform.