BlackBerry 10 Will Be Available At Verizon On Launch Day

It's hardly a secret that RIM is suffering in a big way, and the company is hoping that the eventual release of BlackBerry 10 will be able to pull it out of this rut. RIM has been given a glimmer of hope in the form of a Verizon announcement, with the company's chief marketing officer Tami Erwin telling CNET that Verizon will offer at least one BlackBerry 10 device when the operating system launches.

Details are pretty slim at this point – as in essentially non-existent – but at least RIM can count on support for Verizon from day one. This is part of Verizon's plan to offer consumers more choices when it comes to smartphone operating systems. Erwin says that no carrier wants to become "deeply tied" to one or two operating systems, so as a result, Verizon is trying to increase the scope of its offerings by welcoming Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 with open arms.

As many of you already know, BlackBerry 10 is currently scheduled to launch sometime in early 2013. RIM is shooting for a quarter 1 2013 release, but with BlackBerry 10's history of delays, it wouldn't surprise us to see the OS pushed back even more as we approach the end of the year. Indeed, BlackBerry 10 has been hit with a few delays since it was announced, so while we're keeping our fingers crossed for a Q1 2013 release, it may not be the best idea to get your hopes too high until we're closer to BlackBerry 10's expected launch window.

RIM is planning to offer a more modern touch-based BlackBerry 10 device first, before launching a device with a full QWERTY keyboard. Since Verizon says that it will have a BlackBerry 10 device at launch, it seems likely that the device Erwin is referring to is that all-touch handset. In any case, having Verizon's support from launch day is a big win for RIM, so lets hope that with Verizon backing up it, the struggling company can move some units.