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Rumour: 7-inch PlayBook coming in April, first BlackBerry 10 phone in September

A tentative BlackBerry roadmap for 2012 has been sketched out by N4BB and it details what looks like a pretty busy year for RIM.

As we know, PlayBook OS 2.0 is destined to drop next month, bringing with it a huge number of features and settings.

According to sources, this will be followed by BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, which will be hitting devices in April. Mobile Fusion, you might remember, is the enterprise service for IT admins, designed to work on iOS, Android and (naturally) BlackBerry devices.

We say BlackBerry ‘devices’ because it includes the PlayBook as well. Which works out fine as April is also said to see the launch of the next PlayBook.

Like this original this will be a 7-inch tablet but will be 3G and (presumably) Wi-Fi device. We’re guessing that there would be a Wi-Fi only version on offer as well but this sounds great to us – a PlayBook liberated from BlackBerry Bridge for 3G tethering.

Summer looks to be a little quiet; a separate BlackBerry Administration Service will be coming to the PlayBook at some point at this time but the rest of 2012 looks set to be getting ready for the 10’s; the first BlackBerry 10 phone and the first 10-inch BlackBerry PlayBook.

The BlackBerry 10 debut phone, thought to be called London, is said to hit in September and the 10-inch PlayBook later in December. The bigger PlayBook will feature a 4G/LTE antenna in it, scotching any chances of it coming out over here.

As well as this, two BlackBerry Curves will also be hitting the shelves, to keep a hand in the entry-level side of the market; these’ll be BlackBerry 7 phones, like the 9380 and 9360 then.

None of this is confirmed of course and the list looks a little patchy in places. We’d expect to see at least another mid-range to high-end BlackBerry phone (a new Torch?) to pad out the range. BlackBerry OS 7.1 has only just arrived, bringing with it BlackBerry Tag among other things.

Mobile World Congress next month ought to shed some light on this and there’s the BlackBerry World conference that’s being held from the 1st of May through ‘til the 3rd.

Source: N4BB via PhoneArena

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