The last we had heard, the new BlackBerry smartphones coming out (at least one of which will likely be announced next week) would be running OS 6.1, including support for mobile hotspot, augmented reality apps, near-field communications, and a few other goodies. Following that, we’ve been expecting OS 7 (code-named Highlander) to launch sometime early next year with some flavour of QNX included. According to some fresh rumours, RIM has decided to do some shuffling, and will be branding the OS on the Bold Touch and others as 7, and presumable Highlander will get bumped to 8.
The branding change strikes me as much more marketable and pits the BlackBerry against Windows Phone 7 pretty directly. We’ve seen a whole lot of new features that RIM is planning which should justify the OS being more than a mere .1 update on last year’s build. 720p video recording may be something RIM can enable on older phones like the Torch through a software update, while things like voice-activated universal search and an improved software keyboard are both likely to be backwards compatible. We’re also expecting expanded HTML 5 support in the browser, and (hardware-permitting) Open GL 3D graphics for game developers. On the strictly visual side of things, there should be the ability to hide home screen panes or remove redundant icons across multiple panes. There’s also a hint that we’ll see tighter integration with social networks, but what exactly that entails hasn’t been specified.
BlackBerry World is next week, so no doubt we’ll be hearing all of the specifics at the show in Orlando.
UPDATE: RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie confirmed the change in an investor conference call last night.
[via CB]