Alec Saunders, VP of developer relations for RIM, said that the company remains “strongly committed” to its developers, following the news that the company’s first device powered by its next-generation platform – BlackBerry 10 – will not now reach the market until early 2013.

In a blog post, Saunders (pictured) wrote: “You’ve got businesses to run, rent to pay, and investors to answer to. You are the folks who have skin in the game now, and aren’t just waiting for a new phone personally. We know this delay affects you, and we’re sorry.”

RIM is currently in the process of undertaking a wide-ranging developer push, through the BlackBerry 10 Jam event programme, which is taking place in 23 cities. The company is providing some developers with a prototype device, called Dev Alpha, to drive BB10 app development.

Speaking in the conference call in which the company revealed its BB10 delay, Thorsten Heins, its CEO said: “we’re extremely encouraged and excited by the traction that the BlackBerry 10 platform is gaining with application developers and content partners.”

However, with devices not now reaching the market for another quarter – and missing the lucrative Christmas holiday sales period – developers will face a longer wait before it is possible for customers to download – and pay for – apps. The platform is also likely to lag Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 to market.

According to Heins, the company plans to have a “broad spectrum of applications” available when BB10 finally reaches the market, “from every category including games, multimedia, productivity, enterprise and social media applications.” This includes apps for the PlayBook tablet, which is underpinned by a similar platform to BB10, “many of which will run on BlackBerry 10”.

In its results release, RIM said that there are now approaching 89,000 apps available via its BlackBerry App World store, including more than 25,000 for its PlayBook device.