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Loading ...So this report from Research GMP Securities adds a lot of weight to this rumor, but its been around for so long that I am keeping it on rumor status until I see the damn thing. Nonetheless the people at GMP are reporting that they were shown exhibits from a couple different patent applications, the first a touchscreen Blackberry, the second a new Pearl.
The Touchscreen Blackberry, or BlackBerry Touchscreen, has several other new features, obviously the large tough-screen is the biggest one since it’s the first device RIM will have ever made with a touchscreen. On top of that though, there is a slide out keyboard, GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G and a 3.5-inch 320×480 display. Also, they are talking about an entirely new OS that would both utilize the touch-screen and offer up multithreading capabilities so you can do more than one thing at once.
The second, and noticeably more boring, device is the Pearl 2.0 sans the SureType keypad. Instead, they are going to have a rotating keyboard, QWERTY on one side, numbers on the other which would make it easier to dial a number, and easier to type without getting the two mixed up.
Blackberry Touchscreen 1.0 and Pearl 2.0 [via phonemag]
Although RIM is almost certainly developing a touchscreen Blackberry, I call ‘BS’ on some of this rumor.
>>Also, they are talking about an entirely new OS that would both utilize the touch-screen and offer up multi-threading capabilities so you can do more than one thing at once.
For one thing the Blackberry OS is already multi-threading - so what is this about? In any case, this is really multi-tasking as it refer to multiple programs running at once. All you have to do is go Alt + back button to pop-up the task manager thing and see what other apps are currently running. I guess what the rumor source is really saying is that this new OS would allow for multiple, user interface elements from different apps to be displayed on screen / interacted with, at the same time?
Secondly, it doesn’t seem very feasible that RIM would create ‘an entirely new OS’. They cannot afford to lose compatibility (they already have compatibility issues as it is). RIM has been adding a lot of new features at a rather quick pace to each iteration of the existing OS - and it shows because there are some problems ‘under the hood’: broken APIs, stuff that doesn’t work right and general compatibility issues. Nothing too crazy. Just expected growing pains. Quite frankly, I am impressed with how well they have done. But I find it hard to believe that they are going to toss that out and come up with a totally new OS.