I didn't even pay attention to the Blackberry 10 Launch. Despite the fact that I'm still a satisfied Crackberry user (since I LIVE in email) and I need a decent keyboard), like most people, I had written RIM/Blackberry off. Not necessarily for myself, but as a key player in the mobile industry. Like many technology analysts, I figured that no matter HOW good this device was, it wasn't going to attract new customers or developers, or keep existing customers from defecting as their contracts expire or their phones get lost and replaced.

But having viewed the coverage of the launch in NY yesterday (Thanks Ina Fried), I have to say, I'm reconsidering. What got my attention is the Hub --a feature (maybe easily copied?) and maybe not unique to BB. The idea is this. If you LIVE in email, then email is always on, but you can see your contacts' interactions, and your upcoming calendar events and a handful of apps you can access with a single click. I'll have to try it out, but it SEEMS more user-friendly for those of us who don't want to have to keep selecting icons to flip between apps.

"There’s a lot of physical-keyboard lovers out there,” CEO Thorsten Heins said. “We heard you loud and clear.” I think that kind of sums up the Crackberry customer base. (The Q10 is the model with the physical keyboard and the Z10 (or Zed10 for the rest of the world) is the touch screen version with, they claim, the best typing experience of a virtual keyboard.

Oh, and they selected singer Alicia Keys (A Womens' Worth) as their creative director/evangelist. Seems like they hit my demographic pretty well!

(Now Blackberry replaces Research in Motion as a company name--good move!)