BlackBerry OS is a discontinued proprietary

mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system used for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on the ...

developed by Canadian company Research In Motion (now BlackBerry Limited) for its

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

line of

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

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

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 (computing), mouse with an exposed protruding ball. Users roll the ball t ...

, and in later years, the

trackpad A touchpad or trackpad is a type of pointing device. Its largest component is a tactile sensor: an electronic device with a flat surface, that detects the motion and position of a user's fingers, and translates them to 2D motion, to control a p ...

and

touchscreen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...

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

BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry 10 (BB10) is a proprietary mobile operating system for the BlackBerry line of smartphones, both developed by BlackBerry Limited (formerly known as Research In Motion). Released in January 2013, BlackBerry 10 is a complete rework from t ...

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

Features

The BlackBerry platform natively supports corporate email, through Java Micro Edition MIDP 1.0 and, later, 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 2.0. Updates to the operating system were automatically available from wireless carriers that supported the BlackBerry over the air software loading (OTASL) service. Third-party developers wrote software using the available BlackBerry API classes, although applications that made use of certain functionality needed to be digitally signed.

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, Application Switcher and Music, Pictures, Videos and Phone apps.

Availability

While BlackBerry Limited developed and released updated versions of its operating system for each device, individual carriers decided if and when a version was released to their users. BlackBerry OS has now reached end-of-life. Therefore, devices running it are no longer sold new.

BlackBerry fonts

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

Arial Arial is a sans-serif typeface in the Sans-serif#Neo-grotesque, neo-grotesque style. Fonts from the Arial family are included with all versions of Microsoft Windows after Windows 3.1, as well as in other Microsoft programs, Apple's macOS, and ma ...

*BBAlpha Sans *BBAlpha Sans Condensed *BBAlpha Serif *BBCAPITALS *BBCCasual *BBClarity *BBCondensed *BBGlobal Sans *BBGlobal Serif *BBMillbank *BBMillbank Tall *BBSansSerif *BBSansSerifSquare *BBSerifFixed * Comic Sans MS * Courier New *

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

* Impact * Tahoma *

Times New Roman Times New Roman is a serif typeface commissioned for use by the British newspaper ''The Times'' in 1931. It has become one of the most popular typefaces of all time and is installed on most personal computers. The typeface was conceived by Stanl ...

Trebuchet MS Trebuchet MS is a Sans-serif#Humanist, humanist sans-serif typeface that Vincent Connare designed for Microsoft, Microsoft Corporation in 1996. Trebuchet MS was the font used for the window titles in the Luna (theme), Windows XP default theme, su ...

* Verdana BBAlphaSans and BBAlphaSerif are based on the

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

DejaVu fonts The DejaVu fonts are a font superfamily, superfamily of computer font, fonts designed for Open-source Unicode typefaces, broad coverage of the Unicode Universal Character Set. The fonts are derived from Bitstream Vera (sans-serif) and Bitstream ...

BlackBerry Tablet OS

On September 27, 2010, BlackBerry Limited 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 computers ...

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

References

* * *

External links

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