NEW DELHI: BlackBerry PlayBook’s processing prowess is set to arrive on smartphones soon. Close on the heels of Research In Motion launching five new BlackBerry 7 smartphones, the Canadian company is readying the launch of its first QNX-powered smartphone.
BlackBerry’s Playbook tablet runs on OS built on QNX Neutrino architecture with support for symmetric multiprocessing. QNX software is used to help control the music and media features in BMW and Porsche sports cars.
According to a blog post on Boy Genius Report, RIM plans to launch its first QNX-powered BlackBerry in the first quarter of 2012. Codenamed Colt, the smartphone will reportedly be powered by a single-core processor. Earlier reports suggested it to be a speedier multi-core chipset. However, the report hints that this may change ahead of the device’s launch. Colt is said to be currently undergoing internal testing with a single-core chip.
The report also suggests that Colt, like the PlayBook, will launch without BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). This means just like PlayBook, Colt will not support native email at the launch.
BlackBerry PlayBook, which supports only Wi-Fi, suffered criticism for not being able to connect to mobile networks, unlike the rival tablets from Apple, Motorola and Samsung. This meant email, contacts and BlackBerry Messenger are only available when the tablet is connected with BlackBerry smartphone through BlackBerry Bridge.
Speculations are also rife that RIM is working on a QNX-specific BlackBerry Enterprise Server.