BlackBerry Jam Americas is currently underway, and RIM is using the opportunity to bring its fans up to speed on the latest developments towards bringing BlackBerry 10 to market. CEO Thorsten Heins spoke to the crowd about the company’s plans for the launch, and after months of seemingly slow progress, it looks like things are finally about to start happening.

Heins says that carriers will begin their certification tests for RIM’s new BlackBerry 10 hardware sometime next month, still aiming for a commercial launch in early 2013. We’ve already got a couple looks at that launch hardware, the company’s L-series handset. That should be followed several weeks later by the more traditional N-series design, with a hardware keyboard.

According to Heins, carriers are very excited about this BlackBerry 10 hardware, which may be one reason testing is starting so far in advance of the scheduled launch. Considering what we’ve heard about dwindling sales of existing BlackBerry hardware, we bet those carriers are interested in getting some fresh product, just so they can finally clear their shelves of previous-gen hardware no one seems to want anymore.

Source: Engadget