It all comes down to this; The future of BlackBerry boils down to the announcement of BlackBerry OS 10 tonight (which Lowyat.NET will be covering on twitter @LowyatNET) that will hopefully save RIM and bring them up to speed with the rest of the industry. This is make or break, with talks about selling parts of the business flying around, failure now could sink the BlackBerry ship altogether in the consumer space. With the exception of Indonesia, where it is not uncommon to find people with more than one BlackBerry device, most of the world has seemed to have moved on to “greener” pastures.

I was closed to the idea of BB OS. I scoffed at BB OS 7 and how antiquated everything was and prior to seeing anything about BB OS 10, I wrote it off as a bandaid to fix a crack in a ships hull. I was so entranced in the world of incredible apps and seamless UI experience of iOS as well as extreme customization potential and integration that android brought to the table I did not even give BB OS 10 a snowball’s chance in hell. That is, before I actually saw it and played with it for myself. I was impressed with how fresh everything felt, the lack of a “home button”, peek and flow, how it handled multitasking as well as what a departure it was coming from the old BlackBerry experience that we have known and come to scorn.

I believe BlackBerry stands a chance. Not just to succeed with BlackBerry 10, but to open up the mobile OS race even further. In an industry where it’s between the iOS and Android big boys, it’s refreshing to see something new pop up here and again, not just with BB OS 10, but with the upcoming Sailfish and Ubuntu OS’ that were shown off recently. Granted, being the underdog is not always the favourable position to be in but it’s better than not being there at all.

Fanboys from either side will be quick to dismiss this as efforts to save a sinking ship, but I urge you to give BlackBerry OS 10 a chance. I’m not saying ditch your beloved iPhone 5 or Galaxy S3 and get a Z10 (Although it does look like a heck of a phone) but be open to the idea that the mobile OS industry needs more than 2 players to truly flourish. That ultimately BlackBerry OS 10 is an incredible OS built from the ground up and if successful will benefit YOU as a consumer more than anything.

Don’t just be a fanboy, be a fan of tech.

Here’s a look at what we saw at BlackBerry World last year

And here’s what came out of BlackBerry Jam Americas