BlackBerry 10 Hands-on Demo Impresses at New York Times DealBook Conference [VIDEO]

Donny Halliwell — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 14:00:13 +0000

Last week we attended the New York Times DealBook: Opportunities for Tomorrow Conference. With BlackBerry as a founding conference sponsor, Frank Boulben, CMO for BlackBerry, and Vivek Bhardwaj provided an exclusive preview of BlackBerry 10 to some of the most insightful financial, business and economic thought leaders. The hands-on demo focused on the BlackBerry Hub, BlackBerry Balance and BlackBerry 10 Keyboard. After the demo, the room was abuzz with folks eager to get their hands on BlackBerry 10. I caught up with a few of the attendees to capture their initial reactions to the demo. Here’s what they thought:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

I talked with Vivek afterward, and we both agreed that one of our favorite moments was when an attendee thought he was demoing on a QWERTY device, and he had to hold it up and show the audience that it was a full touch model. “It goes to show the effort we’ve taken to make sure the keyboard on BlackBerry 10 feels like a BlackBerry keyboard,” he said.

While the panel discussions inside the conference were largely geared towards the post-election outlook for the economy, the audience definitely left with a strong sense of where BlackBerry is heading in just a few short weeks.

From what you’ve seen of BlackBerry 10, what are your thoughts on the demos? Let us know in the comments.

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Inside BlackBerry » New York Times technology

BlackBerry 10 Hands-on Demo Impresses at New York Times DealBook Conference [VIDEO]