RIM held an event over the weekend and was able to attract around 15,000 apps for its Blackberry 10 platform by offering incentives to developers to port their programs to Blackberry 10 platform.
RIM offered $100 for each ported and approved application, and also possibility of winning Blackberry 10 development handsets, and a trip to its Jam Europe developer event. Read more details at Computerworld article.
This is very important, since it will stock BB10 store with apps at its launch, and can help the phone gain traction. Abundant applications are one of the foremost strengths of Apple and Android platforms, and BB needed this in order to be able to compete with them.
Looking at the Blackberry 10 video again, the phone actually seems VERY neat, and seems as if it can easily get head to head with Android and Apple phones. This launch pending at january 30, is an important moment for RIM, since it will show whether they can make a comeback and compete with the established players in smartphone arena.
So far, it seem they will succeed, since both the phone and its features look neat, and the application support is going to be there as well.
In case you can sit through a german-language video, here is another, more detailed video of Blackberry 10, shot by a german with huge hands :
