RIM Intros BlackBerry 6.1 Application Platform

Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion has unveiled the BlackBerry 6.1 Application Platform during the opening day of BlackBerry DevCon Asia, saying that it was built on the BlackBerry 6 platform and that it would bring a series of new features to both users and developers.

Tyler Lessard, VP of Global Alliances and Developer Relations for RIM, was the one to unveil the new platform, and he also announced that RIM plans on making the software available for download in the near future.

Apparently, the company is set to have developers familiar with the new tools when the first devices powered by BlackBerry 6.1 make it to shelves during the next quarter or in the third quarter of the ongoing year.

Although nothing was announced officially on the matter, CrackBerry notes that RIM might consider delivering the new platform to devices running under BlackBerry 6 too.

We should also note that some of the latest leaks on RIM's upcoming devices, including info on the next Torch handset, or on the new BlackBerry Curve family, mentioned the BlackBerry OS 6.1, which suggests that the new OS flavor might indeed be on the market soon.

Among the new tools/APIs included with the BlackBerry 6.1 Application Platform, we can count:

Magnetometer / Digital compass APIs
Open GL-ES 2.0
Window API (overlay native app surfaces)
Event-based geo-fencing location APIs
Enhancement to barcode API's for additional formats and custom decoding

However, this is not all, that the new platform would include, RIM says, and the screenshot attached to this article points in that direction as well. Other info on the OS would become available as it nears its official release date.

While BlackBerry 6.1 is the very next step RIM takes in the evolution of its mobile OS and smartphones, the company is expected to move to the QNX-based operating system with its mobile phones as well, the same as it did with the BlackBerry PlayBook, its first tablet PC.

However, that might take a while, especially since the platform is expected to be packed only in dual-core handsets from the company. But, as RIM's Founder and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis already confirmed, this would happen sooner or later.