Welcome to the biggest day in the history of Research In Motion
They laughed, they mocked, they ridiculed, they insulted and they said this day would never come.
Well, to all the non-believers – the day is here. Welcome to the biggest day in the history of Research In Motion and the biggest day for the whole of #TeamBlackBerry.
This afternoon, the BlackBerry 10 launch event will kick off and the world will finally get to see BlackBerry 10.
It’s been a long ride but today it all ‘begins‘.
For RapidBerry it has been a fantastic first six months as a corporate developer company culminating in the fact that we will be showcasing in both Toronto and London at the BlackBerry Experience Forum.
The best way I can start the day is to say thanks to a few people who deserve it most.
I start at the top with the man who deserves the biggest praise of all. Alec Saunders, VP of Developer Relations.
From issuing 25,000 PlayBook’s when he first took the job, he has been the driving source getting devs on-board. A man who has probably spent that much time flying from country to country that his wife must must send him the occasional photograph just to remind him what she looks like.
From Dev Alpha devices, to the multitude of dev jams and other dev events, he continuously delivered the message that BlackBerry 10 was the platform to develop for – and that message got through.
Developers came in droves!
I’m not going to re-iterate here everything that he has done for developers as it is well-documented elsewhere. Make no mistake, Alec Saunders work can never be overstated as without him, there would be very few BlackBerry 10 apps in BlackBerry World today. No apps would mean no BlackBerry 10 really.
My first contact with him was on a Sunday afternoon when I sent him an email regarding something and I really wasn’t expecting a reply. Imagine my surprise to receive a reply via email ten minutes later. He not only thought my email was important but important enough to reply not only to me but to contact somebody else at RIM about it. If I was impressed then, I was totally stunned 20 minutes later when I was contacted by the person Alec had emailed.
He was actually in Alaska on holiday when he got emy email and dealt with it. Now that is complete and total commitment and is something that I will never forget and will be eternally grateful for. Thank you.
To all the non BlackBerry developers and corporate developers that I have ear-bashed over the past six months, my sincere thanks for watching my presentations and providing me the opportunity to show you the BlackBerry development platform and convincing you to develop for BlackBerry 10.
Thanks to Rebecca Yim for fantastic support to all the BlackBerry Developer Groups.
Thanks to Shay Dillon. Fantastic support beyond the call of duty, supporting corporates and enterprises.
Watch the Launch Event at it happens
If you’re attending one of the events then make sure you join the ‘live’ webcast as everything is revealed.
New York – 10 am
Toronto – 10 am
London – 3pm
Paris – 4pm
Johannesburg – 5pm
Dubai – 7pm
Watch it via Live Webcast at http://www1.rim.com/newsroom.html.
Enjoy the day and enjoy BlackBerry 10.
I’d like to dedicate this article to Carole and John Moyes. Carol died while we were making our way to the BlackBerry Jam last year and her husband John (one of our developers) died of a heart attack within a month. They would have loved this day and we miss them both. Our deepest sympathies to their two sons, Donald and Maria. From all of the staff at RapidBerry. You are in our thoughts and never forgotten.
Now that the 30th is past, I can truly say that I am even more committed to BlackBerry, if that is possible. Everyone connected with the product should be duly proud. The devs, the teams that traveled the world to get everyone excited, the forums that support the BlackBerry wholeheartedly, and on and on. Thank you all for making the BB10 happen.
Well-written, John!! The whole RIM team is an awesome group of people and Alec is so hard-working!
What a day, what an article and what a site. First class.
Proud to be a member of TeamBlackBerry today.
Today is THE DAY
This is exactly one of the reasons that RapidBerry is my favourite site – total humility and honesty.
You thank everybody bar yourself.
I was one of those developers you constanty ‘ear-bashed’ and as an iPhone developer I laughed. I still remember the day I watched you and Marianne walk into a room of 100 of us hardcore iPhone devs and I thought to myself "poor bas****s don’t have a chance".
Instead, we were captivated as you gave us this presentation with nothing but a Bold 9900, a PlayBook and a dev alpha.
The presentation was hypnotic as we sat and listened – and more importantly watched.
That day you convinced me to think about giving BlackBerry 10 a try and it was in the forthcoming weeks that you convinced our company to go for it with your constant phone support, your patience in answering all my mundane questions and even going so far as taking the time to get me a dev alpha to develop with.
You convinced my company to develop for BlackBerry 10 and we have never looked back. Corporate companies came on-board.
What you do in the background, and take absolutely no credit for, is inspiring.
So when you are taking the time to thank everybody else – take a step back and give yourself and all the Rapid staff a pat on the back.
Thanks John, I really enjoyed reading your open letter. I have read a few things over the past month about Alec, and I can’t help but be impressed by his enthusiasm and ideas. Thank you for the great website and continuous efforts. I can’t wait to read more in the coming days from RapidBerry about the Z10, X10, and everything after during RIMM’s triumphant return!
Get some sleep, you hard working Rapid Berry people, you have some serious partying to do Wednesday evening. HAVE SO MUCH FUN, THAT WE FEEL IT OVER HERE. CHEERS!
What a fantastic write-up and a superb way to start this auspicious day.
Keep up the good work.
Well said John
Excellent, looking forward to joining you in the morning. 7am PST This is totally history being made for Research in Motion.