RIM Debuts BlackBerry 6 OS to Fend Off Smartphone Competitors

When talking about smartphones, it can be very easy to get caught up in the argument between the big two: Apple’s iOS (iPhone), and Google’s Android (EVO 4G, Droids, etc.). The iPhone has 25% of the smartphone market, with Android and Windows phones tied at 13%. {Forbes} Still, we often forget the forthcoming Windows Mobile 7, and the languishing WebOS. Despite the fact that BlackBerrys make up an impressive 42% market share of the smartphone market, they tend to just get tossed aside, forgotten, and in general ignored as phones used mainly by business-types who need them for work, or those who really love physical keyboards.

Research In Motion, the makers of BlackBerry, realized this a while back, and introduced the first BlackBerry Storm.  Problem is, it wasn’t very good, and the OS didn’t seem to work very well with touchscreens.  Now RIM is showing off BlackBerry 6, the next version of the OS that’s geared toward smartphones, and it actually looks pretty good.  BlackBerry 6 looks to have some social networking built into the OS, making sharing info and finding info through Facebook and Twitter much easier than before.  The web browser is also greatly improved, and will be based on WebKit, the same engine that powers the web browsers in iOS, Android, and WebOS. {Mashable}

BlackBerry 6 is still distinctly a BlackBerry OS, it has a very similar aesthetic, but seems to be a bit closer to WebOS as well.  RIM has a history of potentially exciting products, like the Black Berry Storm, that are ultimately uninteresting or just don’t live up to potential.  That’s not to say BlackBerry 6 and whatever new device touchscreen-centric device might run it will be bad, but it’s enough to be a bit wary.  That being said, the UI is pretty exciting, and possibly the most interesting thing to happen to BlackBerry devices in quite some time.