BlackBerry Operating System

Research In Motion (RIM) provides a proprietary multi-tasking operating system (OS) for the BlackBerry. From 1995-2006, the BlackBerry used the scroll wheel and more recently the trackball to navigate. The operating system provides support for Java MIDP 1.0 and WAP 1.2.

Previous versions permitted wireless synchronization with Microsoft Exchange Server's e-mail and calendar, as well as with Lotus Domino's e-mail. The current operating system 4 provides a subset of MIDP 2.0, and allows complete wireless activation and synchronization with Exchange's e-mail, calendar, tasks, notes and contacts. It also adds support for Novell GroupWise and Lotus Notes.

Third-party developers can write software using these APIs, proprietary BlackBerry APIs as well, but any application that makes use of certain restricted functionality must be digitally signed so that it can be associated to a developer account at RIM. This signing procedure guarantees the authorship of an application, but does not guarantee the quality or security of the code.

Recently, Research In Motion released the first official versions of BlackBerry handheld OS versions 4.5, 4.6 and 4.7. These releases included the addition of new features such as full HTML e-mail support and built-in Docs to Go document viewing and editing software from DataViz. Four brand-new devices were also released, including the Bold 9000, Pearl Flip 8220, Storm 95xx and Curve 8900. Even though Rim has introduced hardware improvements, the new software is only simple changes in previous BlackBerry OS.

One major concern about the BlackBerry OS is that there is no way to save and backup BlackBerry applications to a media card. BlackBerry users are restricted to on-board memory for applications and they're restricted to on-board application memory, which offers even less storage space-for RIM's current devices, it's somewhere in the range of 128MB (Storm and Bold) to 256MB (Curve 8900). Consider that this application memory is also where your OS is installed and things like your inbox and browser cache take up space and in reality you're left with around 30-40 megs on the Bold/Storm for apps and just over 100 on the Curve 8900.

The BlackBerry OS and another portion of the core system software is also stored within the on-device application memory. The BlackBerry smartphones like the Storm have as much as 1GB of on-board memory and support external microSDHC cards up to 32GB, the users actually have much less app storage space. When that app space is filled, you can either delete apps to add more, deal with a poorly performing BlackBerry that needs more memory to run efficiently or simply forget about new apps.