blackberry_OS_overhaul

BlackBerry OS 5 has been floating around the interwebs for some time now and we know that when it is finally officially released, it isn’t going to be the major overhaul to the BlackBerry operating system that we once hoped it would be.   On one hand you can say that the BlackBerry is holding it’s own against the likes of the iPhone’s OS and Web OS found on the Palm Pre, however, I don’t know that the BlackBerry OS  is in a ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ type of situation when compared to it’s competitors.

If you leave out the BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry devices and the operating systems that run on them, are generally seen as the model for for stability and reliability.  You used to hear people say that the BlackBerry doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of it’s competitors but they just always seem to work.  There is a lot to be said for stability and reliability in the corporate world, a realm in which the BlackBerry reigns supreme, however, the desires of consumers, the new battleground on which the  smartphone war is being waged, differ just a bit.

Not to say that consumers don’t want stable devices.  It sucks for anyone when you are trying to make a call and your phone reboots on your, however, consumers seem to be bit more forgiving when it comes to the occasional reboot, especially when they have thousands of really cool applications to help them pass time by when their devices are running, even if they can only run said applications one at a time.

I personally think that the BlackBerry OS has these other mobile operating systems on usability, however, even being the big BlackBerry fan that I am, believe the iPhone wins on the coolness factor hands down.  The Pre and its Web OS tries to bridge usability and cool factor, and, quite honestly, does a bang out job at their first go at it.  There are a few bugs and far too few applications, however, you get a good feel for what Palm is trying to do with the Pre and can see where the future of mobile devices is going.

Is the BlackBerry due for a major OS overhaul?  I think that it is…