Lost this week among the unveiling of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the continued hype of the iPhone 4S and the funny things that Siri says, and new Windows Phones coming from Samsung and HTC is the fact that Research In Motion had its developers’ conference in San Francisco and showcased its next generation mobile operating system, BBX.
BBX is the product of what Research In Motion has been working on to bring a unified mobile operating system to bear between tablets and smartphones based off its acquisition of QNX in April 2010. The first BBX phones are expected to ship in early 2012. This is a pivotal moment in RIM’s history. Will BBX help right the sinking ship? That is the topic of this week’s ReadWriteMobile poll.
BBX is akin to both Windows 8 and Ice Cream Sandwich. RIM is attempting to marry the best aspects of PlayBook QNX tablet OS with the long evolution of the BlackBerry OS for smartphones.
RIM will integrate its host of developer environments in BBX, including HTML5, WebWorks, Adode Air, Native C/C__ and Runtime for Android. Just like Ice Cream Sandwich, apps built for the PlayBook will be backwards compatible with new BBX smartphones.
The Cascades user interface framework that has brought some of the best looking apps to the PlayBook will also be available in BBX. At the same time, all the good BlackBerry goodness that made the platform popular in its heyday will be supported, from push notifications, messaging and, of course, security.
BlackBerry lost 5% of its market share, mostly to Android, in the summer of 2011. We asked earlier this week if RIM could pull itself out of the downward spiral in which it finds itself with QNX. Can the new BBX deliver RIM out of its free fall? Developers, are you more likely to develop for BBX, or is it a wait-and-see approach to see if it is worth the effort? Take the poll and and let us know in the comments.
