The leaked BlackBerry Bold 9900 OS from a few weeks ago that enabled mobile hotspot had another subtle addition. This is a new BlackBerry Device Analyzer, which can diagnose the status of wireless signal, e-mail connectivity, battery life, processing speed, and miscellaneous hardware components. Although it looks fairly user-friendly, it wouldn’t be surprising if carriers had access to the data generated by this app in some way in order to improve customer service much like Carrier IQ tries to (minus the privacy concerns).
In fact, given RIM’s history of working very closely with carriers (sometimes too closely), I would be surprised if they didn’t offer a way to export the diagnostic data to carrier service reps that are troubleshooting with a customer. Even if there wasn’t, it would probably be the first place BlackBerry owners go before they even call up their service provider.
The BlackBerry Device Analyzer is an interesting addition given all of the Carrier IQ stuff floating around, but honestly, it’s definitely the kind of thing RIM would naturally include in their devices; if nothing else, BlackBerry devices are easy to manage, and a tool like this could make support a lot easier.
[via N4BB]