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 my 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.
Thank you to everyone involved with the BlackBerry Developer Group Scotland for all your support.
Thanks to Rebecca Yim for fantastic support to all the BlackBerry Developer Groups.
Thanks to Luke Reimer. Absolutely fantastic support.
Thanks to Shay Dillon. Fantastic support beyond the call of duty, supporting corporates and enterprises.
Of course, thanks to all the staff at RapidBerry and all our users.
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.
