While Blackberry's annual event – Blackberry World 2012 – has a lot of draws, there is a bit of a pallour on this year's festivities.
RIM hasn't had the best last couple of years so it's understandable that it might be harder to draw a large crowd of developers to their event and to the platform in general.
To combat this, RIM promised that developers who attend its Blackberry 10 Jam – which promised hands on time with the new OS – would walk away with a more handheld version of a Blackberry 10 device for testing apps in the new environment.
Mobile Syrup got some pictures of the prototype BB 10 device from an attendee and it looks…very different.
Admittedly, this is definitely just a prototype, mocked up for the event so that devs can start playing around with the new unified OS, but it looks pretty slick. It resembles, in many ways, a Playbook but scaled down to the size of your standard smartphone size. The only RIM branding is a bright silver Blackberry badge on the back. Subtle.
If RIM gets some decent touch tech in there, and capitalizes on the strengths of the brand, the looks and functionality could be a winning combo.
Either way, if you're curious, click through to see the very unofficial first BB 10 device.