BlackBerry Software Roadmap Shows OS 7.0 (QNX) in Q4

Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion is expected to bring to the market during the ongoing year a new flavor of its BlackBerry mobile operating system, namely OS 7.0, which is most probably based on QNX, the software behind the already unveiled tablet OS for the company's BlackBerry PlayBook.

The handset vendor already confirmed plans to add to its offering smartphones that are based on the QNX platform, but specific details on them were not available until now.

However, a leaked BlackBerry software roadmap shows that the company is set to make the BlackBerry OS 7.0 available for users sometime during the fourth quarter of the ongoing year.

Specific details on the said BlackBerry OS 7.0 lack at the moment, but enthusiasts would certainly rejoice learning that the first QNX-based BlackBerry smartphones might be so close to being launched on the market.

As the guys over at N4BB note in a recent article, it remains to be seen whether RIM would plan on making the BlackBerry OS 7.0 available on older devices too, and which approach it would choose when it comes to making the move.

Most probably, the company would plan on making the new OS flavor available on newer devices at first, while aiming at bringing it on older handsets at a later date.

Other pieces of info that can be extracted from the aforementioned roadmap would include the fact that RIM aims at launching BIS 4.0 in March or April and 4.1 in late August, or in early September.

Moreover, the company has in store some other software updates too for its users, including Facebook 2.0 beta 1 and 2, along with App World for BlackBerry PlayBook (in March), along with new flavors of BlackBerry Protect (1.1 and 1.2).

Identity Service, Social Feeds 2.0 in May and BlackBerry News 1.1 would also arrive this year. A flurry of RIM built applications are expected to arrive on handsets during 2011.