BlackBerry 7 Devices Already Obsolete?

By Rue Liu/Updated: Sept. 21, 2011 12:34 pm EST

Research In Motion (RIM) unveiled several new BlackBerry 7 OS smartphones this morning including the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930, the Blackberry Torch 9810, and the BlackBerry Torch 9850/9860. All of which will include new touchscreen displays on familiar form factors. These phones won't ship until later this month, but are they already obsolete?

Many folks are criticizing RIM's new offerings, saying that the new devices will not be upgradeable when RIM transitions to its new QNX OS. The current hardware will not be compatible, meaning that if customers want to upgrade to get the new OS features, they'll have to buy a new phone. A "super phone" is already in the works for the QNX OS slated to hit sometime next year.

Furthermore, the current BlackBerry 7 OS smartphones do not support Flash, which is an oddity since Apple rivals typically use that as a marketing weapon. According to Business Insider, RIM explains that Flash requires dual-core processors to render properly, which these new BlackBerry OS 7 handsets are not equipped with.

[via Business Insider]