BlackBerry OS is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system developed by Canadian company BlackBerry Limited for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices. The operating system provides multitasking and supports specialized input devices adopted by BlackBerry for use in its handhelds, particularly the trackwheel, trackball, and most recently, the trackpad and touchscreen. The BlackBerry platform natively supports corporate email, through Java Micro Edition 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 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. 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 in January 2013, and support for it ceased on 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 BlackBerry 10, 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.

<!-- I honestly think the tables above are more than enough to track down which devices support which operating system. Please do NOT create the mumbo jumbo "9700 has 7.0.0.528" table! Maybe summarize key information in a short table or list, but little revisions of the software are NOT notable. Thanks, True Tech Talk Time. {| class="wikitable sortable" ! Model !! Name !! Input !! OS ! T-Mobile ! AT&T ! Bell ! Rogers ! Telus ! Mobilicity ! Verizon ! Sprint ! SaskTel ! WIND Mobile ! 6750 ! 7130e ! 7250 ! 7750 ! 8100 ! 8110 ! 8120 ! 8130 ! 8220 ! 8230 ! 8300 ! 8310 ! 8320 ! 8330 ! 8350i ! 8520 ! 8530 ! 8730e ! 8800 ! 8820 ! 8830 ! 8900 ! 9000 ! 9100 ! 9300 ! 9330 ! 9350 ! 9360 ! 9370 ! 9380 Touchscreen || 7.0.0 || || || 7.0.0.482 (December 7, 2011) || || 7.0.0.482 (November 29, 2011) || 7.0.0.482 (December 5, 2011) || || ||7.0.0.482 (November 25, 2011)|| ! 9530 ! 9550 ! 9630 ! 9650 ! 9670 ! 9700 ! 9780 ! 9790 Touchscreen || 7.0.0 || || ||7.0.0.528 (December 7, 2011)||7.0.0.528 (December 5, 2011)||7.0.0.528 (December 5, 2011)|| || || ||7.0.0.528 (November 30, 2011)|| ! 9800 Touchscreen || 6.0.0|| ||6.0.0.600 (July 8, 2011)||6.0.0.600 (July 18, 2011)||6.0.0.448 (March 4, 2011)||6.0.0.448 (March 16, 2011)|| || || ||6.0.0.534 (May 5, 2011)|| ! 9810 Touchscreen || 7.0.0 || 7.0.0.439 (October 21, 2011) || 7.0.0.576 (January 5, 2012) || 7.0.0.261 (August 16, 2011) || 7.0.0.254 (August 11, 2011) || 7.0.0.261 (August 16, 2011) || || || ||7.0.0.261 (August 26, 2011)|| 7.0.0.474 (November 21, 2011) ! 9850 Touchscreen || 7.1.0 || || || || || || || 7.1.0.163 (January 10, 2012) || 7.1.0.163 (December 16, 2011) || || ! 9860 Touchscreen || 7.0.0 || || 7.0.0.576 (January 5, 2012) || 7.0.0.261 (August 16, 2011) || 7.0.0.261 (August 16, 2011) || 7.0.0.261 (August 18, 2011)|| || || || 7.0.0.261 (August 16, 2011) || ! 9900 Touchscreen || 7.1.0.284 (March 13, 2012) || 7.0.0.250 (September 7, 2011) || 7.1.0.267 (March 14, 2012) || 7.1.0.267 (March 14, 2012)|| 7.0.0.261 (August 11, 2011) || 7.1.0.267 (March 14, 2012)|| 7.0.0.353 (September 20, 2011) || || || 7.0.0.261 (August 16, 2011)||7.0.0.439 (October 21, 2011) ! 9930 Touchscreen || 7.1.0 || || || || || || || 7.1.0.163 (January 10, 2012) || 7.1.0.163 (December 16, 2011) || || --->

BlackBerry fonts

The following is a list of fonts included in BlackBerry OS (some are not included in older versions): BBAlphaSans and BBAlphaSerif are based on the free software DejaVu fonts.

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.