The Canadian Press has named Research In Motion “Canada’s Top Business Newsmaker of 2012.” They conduct this survey annually using various editors and broadcasters from across Canada to determine the top newsmaker and stories of the year. RIM garnered 37% of the vote in a large victory over the Canadian Economy, which only got 24% of the votes.

This is both good and bad news for RIM. The year started off well with the introduction of the PlayBook, but slow sales and empty promises quickly turned the PlayBook news to negative. We saw the stock price tick lower and then BlackBerry 7 and the Bold 9900 hit store shelves. Out of the gate, BlackBerry 7 was doing well and global adoption was at an all-time high. But then sales stalled and once again, the stock price fell rapidly. RIM and the BlackBerry brand ended 2011 with the announcement that BlackBerry 10 would be delayed till late-2012 and they would be relying on BlackBerry 7 devices to keep the company afloat till then.

So, it seems like RIM being the biggest business newsmaker of 2011 was from lots of negative stories and the company’s rapid decline. However, there is still hope for RIM as the calendar flips to 2012. They still have a huge customer base across the world and they own more of the market in Canada than any other device maker. The PlayBook tablet sold extremely well with the deep holiday discounts RIM was offering to close out 2011 and PlayBook OS 2.0 is due out in February. This update will bring the PlayBook up to par with the iPad and Android tablets, bringing native Email and PIM, the Android app player, and an overall improved tablet experience. RIM is also hard at work on both the BlackBerry ecosystem and BlackBerry 10 OS.

2012 is shaping up to be an even more “Year of the BlackBerry” than 2011 was. RIM’s betting the farm on the QNX-based, BlackBerry 10 OS, and judging from the previews we have seen, it’s a pretty good bet. BlackBerry’s new slogan going into 2012 is “Be Bold,” and that’s something I know the company plans to be in the coming year. We’ll be bringing you all the news throughout 2012 as we  hope to see the resurgence of RIM and the BlackBerry brand in consumer hands all across the globe.

Source : N4BB

DevCon 2011 is coming up in October and I’m sure many developers are anxious to see what great sessions RIM is going to be hosting at this year’s conference. Well you can now check out the full Session Catalog for DevCon 2011 online. For those that don’t know, DevCon 2011 will be held in San Francisco on October 18-20. There will be lots of great developer presentations and maybe even a few exciting announcements. You can  view the full session catalog, all speakers and presenters, and even rigister for the event using the link below. We’ll be blogging live from DevCon 2011 and we hope to see you there!

• View the DevCon 2011 Session Catalog

Not like we needed anymore confirmation on what BlackBerry devices Bell would be launching this year, but it looks like we now have a double confirmation that they will indeed be launching the BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Torch 9860, BlackBerry Torch 9810, and the BlackBerry Curve 9630. The slide above seems to be from a Bell Mobility internal training where they were debriefed on a few of their back to school devices.

If the leak from a few days ago holds true it looks like we’re just over a month away from the launch of the all new BlackBerrys featuring BlackBerry 7, I know I can’t wait any longer.

Source: MobileSyrup

I must say that we’ve been spoiled with this weeks slew of leaked images and tutorial videos of RIM’s 2011 BlackBerry line up. What a better way to finish off the week then with a video of the BlackBerry Bold Touch. The guys over at N4BB have been able to get their hands on a short video of the new Bold Touch and even though it’s a pre release it looks leaps and bounds better than any current BlackBerry, it must be the liquid graphics.

Source: N4BB

By this time I’m sure everyone is well aware that the 2011 BlackBerry line-up will indeed be sporting NFC chips for mobile payments and some other goodies. Up until today we really had no idea what RIM was planning for the NFC system, could we add bbm contacts by tapping two devices together or maybe transfer a whole contact we just don’t know. Today a few images of a NFC tagging application popped up on the web care of N4BB giving us a little insight into a NFC app RIM could be including on their new devices.

I’ve tried to do some extra digging on what this app will actually be used for and all leads have come up dry, so nothing just yet. What we do know is that the app is currently VERY simple having only two options within the application itself, one to search and one to create a tag, after creating a new tag you can attach an image file to it…after that I’m at a loss.

Just like a lot of the new features of BlackBerry 6.1 and the 2011 line up is yet to be seen, so all we can do is continue guessing and hoping that RIM announces something big at BlackBerry World 2011. Check out a few more photos after the break and remember that we will be reporting live from BlackBerry World starting may 2nd 2011.

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2010 flew past faster than I can say the word “BlackBerry”, and it looks like 2011 will be one exciting year. If anyone has been listening in on the podcasts you will know that I’ve been saying for a long time that 2011 was the year for RIM and for our favorite device the BlackBerry. As everyone finishes up their celebrations I just wanted to thank everyone for their support and heres to another year at TheBerryFix.com.