What is BlackBerry OS

BlackBerry OS is a proprietary mobile operating system, developed for the BlackBerry line of smartphone handhelds. The operating system provides multitasking and supports specialized input devices that have been adopted for use in RIM handhelds, particularly the track-wheel, trackball and most recently the trackpad and touchscreen. Research

in Motion Limited(RIM) is a Canadian Telecommunication and wireless device company best known as the developer of the BlackBerry smartphone.

Unfortunately, the BlackBerry OS does not provide a great environment for creating truly cool third-party software. Many are of the opinion that the OS is a mess of Java APIs that have encrusted over various years on top of an ancient real-time operating system(RTOS) core. Also, many developers seem to lack the enthusiasm to create 3D games and augmented-reality experience made available on the IPHONE, Android or even Windows Phone 7. The result is that RIM is way behind the curve when it comes to having a rich array of consumer-focused applications. In a world where smartphone platforms live third-party app communities, RIM has to refocus its OS priorities in order to avoid being reduced to selling messaging phones.

However, all does not seem lost as the existing RIM applications are written in Java. This is a potential lifesaver as a new BlackBerry OS device can run existing BlackBerry applications in a virtual-machine compatibility layer, while offering new APIs that allow programmers to create much better software in the future.