BlackBerry OS is a discontinued proprietary

mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablet computer, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal computing, personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical laptops are "mobi ...

developed by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

company

BlackBerry Limited BlackBerry Limited is a Canadian software company specializing in cybersecurity. Founded in 1984, it was originally known as Research In Motion (RIM). As RIM, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartphones, and tablets ...

for its

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

line of

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

handheld devices. The operating system provides multitasking and supports specialized input devices adopted by BlackBerry for use in its handhelds, particularly the

trackwheel A scroll wheel is a wheel used for scrolling. The term usually refers to such wheels found on computer mice (where they can also be called a mouse wheel). It is often made of hard plastic with a rubbery surface, centred around an internal rotary ...

trackball A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down ball mouse with an exposed protruding ball. Users roll the ball to position the on ...

, and most recently, the trackpad and

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is ofte ...

. The BlackBerry platform natively supports corporate email, through

Java Micro Edition Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of portable code for embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, TV set-top ...

MIDP 1.0 and, more recently, a subset of MIDP 2.0, which allows complete wireless activation and synchronization with Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise email, calendar, tasks, notes and contacts, when used with BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The operating system also supports WAP 1.2. Updates to the operating system were automatically available from wireless carriers that support the BlackBerry over the air software loading (OTASL) service. Third-party developers wrote software using the available BlackBerry API classes, although applications that make use of certain functionality must be

digitally signed A digital signature is a mathematical scheme for verifying the authenticity of digital messages or documents. A valid digital signature, where the prerequisites are satisfied, gives a recipient very high confidence that the message was created b ...

. Research from June 2011 indicated that approximately 45% of mobile developers were using the platform at the time of publication. BlackBerry OS was discontinued after the release of

BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry 10 is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system for the BlackBerry line of smartphones, both developed by BlackBerry Limited (formerly Research In Motion). BlackBerry 10 is based on QNX, a Unix-like operating system that was ...

in January 2013, and support for it ceased after January 4, 2022.

Release history

BlackBerry 9720

The BlackBerry 9720 runs a version of BlackBerry OS 7.1 with updates to the user interface that mimics

, including a new lock screen, redesigned Application Switcher, Music, Pictures, Videos and Phone apps.

Availability

While BlackBerry Limited develops and releases updated versions of its operating system to support each device, it is up to individual carriers to decide if and when a version is released to its users. Presently, BlackBerry OS has reached end-of-life. Therefore, devices running it are no longer sold.

BlackBerry fonts

The following is a list of fonts that are included in some versions of BlackBerry (some of them are not included in older versions): * Andalé Mono *

Arial Arial (also called Arial MT) is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts in the neo-grotesque style. Fonts from the Arial family are included with all versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 3.1 on, some other Microsoft software appli ...

*BBAlpha Sans *BBAlpha Sans Condensed *BBAlpha Serif *BBCAPITALS *BBCCasual *BBClarity *BBCondensed *BBGlobal Sans *BBGlobal Serif *BBMilbank *BBMilbank Tall *BBSansSerif *BBSansSerifSquare *BBSerifFixed *

Comic Sans MS Comic Sans MS is a sans-serif typeface designed by Vincent Connare and released in 1994 by Microsoft Corporation. It is a non-connecting script inspired by comic book lettering, intended for use in cartoon speech bubbles, as well as in other ca ...

* Courier New *

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

* Impact * Tahoma *

Times New Roman Times New Roman is a serif typeface. It was commissioned by the British newspaper ''The Times'' in 1931 and conceived by Stanley Morison, the artistic adviser to the British branch of the printing equipment company Monotype Imaging, Monotype, in ...

* Trebuchet MS * Verdana BBAlphaSans and BBAlphaSerif are based on the

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, ...

DejaVu fonts.

BlackBerry Tablet OS

On September 27, 2010, BlackBerry Ltd. announced a new unrelated QNX-based platform, BlackBerry Tablet OS, to run on its BlackBerry PlayBook

tablet computer A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being comput ...

.BlackBerry Ltd. Unveils The BlackBerry PlayBook
official press release, September 27, 2010

References

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blackberry Os BlackBerry Discontinued operating systems Embedded operating systems Mobile operating systems ARM operating systems Smartphones C++ software