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WATERLOO — For millions of BlackBerry fans, the enduring appeal of Research In Motion Ltd.’s smartphones can be summed up in six letters: QWERTY.

Those six letters adorn the buttons located at the top left hand side of each of the physical keyboards which have been a staple of RIM’s devices since the first BlackBerrys went on sale in 1999.

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Indeed, it was the shape of the physical buttons on RIM’s early devices and their similarity to seeds, which helped inspire the very name, BlackBerry.

Although RIM has developed several BlackBerry devices in the past few years that do away with QWERTY keyboards in favour of touchscreens — to varying degrees of success — for many people, the defining characteristic of a BlackBerry remains its keyboard.

On Wednesday, Canada’s embattled technology giant will take the wraps off its new operating system, BlackBerry 10, and the first two BlackBerry smartphones to be powered by the new software. One of those devices will feature a physical QWERTY keyboard, while the other is a full touchscreen device.