BlackBerry announces BBX, a new hybrid OS

While most of the tech attention is directed towards Android with Google releasing their latest OS and manufacturers launching new handsets; another manufacturer from the opposing army in the form Research in Motion has made a somewhat surprising announcement. Research in Motion has announced a new hybrid OS called BBX which will power both BlackBerry tablets as well as smartphones.

BlackBerry announces BBX, a cross platform OS (Image credit: Reuters)

It was expected from the time QNX was announced that it would be used to power smartphones as well as tablets, but at the BlackBerry DevCon Americas conference in San Francisco the company renamed their OS to BBX. This new OS from BlackBerry will also support their cloud-based services. BBX is set to replace the softwares that are found on the current generation of RIM handsets with the new OS being built around QNX. With this new OS, RIM hopes to withstand the competition being faced from Apple and Google’s Android. At the announcement of BBX, RIM did not provide a date as to when this OS will be seen on a BlackBerry product.

Research in Motion is apparently desperate to gain developers who create apps for Apple and Android for their OS. Alec Saunders, RIM's vice-president for developer relations, said that RIM needs to get out there and recruit developers to target their platform.  The company also stated that BBX would not support the Java language that has been present on BlackBerry devices thus far.

Let us know your reactions on the upcoming BBX operating system from Research in Motion in the comments below and do you think that this would help them survive in the market that is currently dominated by iOS and Android?