I talked to a RIM source, a good friend of my sister's. This is what she told me, as of a couple of months ago.
She saw the prototype phone. According to her, it was touchscreen and very "iphone-ish". She didn't elaborate, I didn't ask more.
There have been problems with the development since QNX is not a mobile OS. Specifically, BES. If it was just simple email, RIM would have something ready for the Playbook already. Even push. But BES is proving to be tough, very tough. She didn't say if they reached a solution or not. I didn't ask.
The corporate culture seems to favour the engineering side as opposed to the "soft" HR or marketing. The latter two is somewhat perceived to be as less important wings of the company.
RIM has been starting to focus on BBX phone development in the summer
Anyhow, take this with a grain of salt. This is what she told me after some prodding on my part. Thought it would be interesting. Some of this is kinda known, but I thought I'd share.
As a side note, I used the 9900 today for the first time. LOVED the browser, which was an extremely pleasant surprise :)