RIM preparing to launch BlackBerry 10 phone in October?

The first smartphone to run the BlackBerry 10 operating system will go on sale in October, reports have claimed.

The under-fire Canadian company will make an announcement in August with the device reaching customers just a couple of months later, inside sources have told BlackBerry news site N4BB.

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Earlier this year, new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins pledged to launch the initial device(s) in the "later half of 2012," but the company is yet to be drawn on an official release date.

Saving grace?

BB10 (formerly known as BBX) is largely seen as a last chance for RIM to hold onto its existing user-base and recapture some of the market share lost to Apple and Android in recent years.

Not a lot is known about the eagerly-awaited software at present, but its is thought that BB10 will combine the best aspects of the existing BlackBerry 7 and the QNX OS which appeared on the BlackBerry PlayBook.

That first device is widely believed to be the BlackBerry London, which will reportedly boast a much-altered candybar form-factor, a metallic casing and a full touchscreen.

However, N4BB reckons the first slider device to retain the famous QWERTY keyboard (sported on signature devices like the Bold, Torch and Curve) will arrive in the early part of 2013