N4BB.com has landed some details about the upcoming BlackBerry 7 operating system. The upcoming OS was one of the topics in a keynote delivered by David Yach, RIM’s Software Chief Technology Officer at an internal RIM RDX conference.
It appears that BlackBerry 7 will be a combination of the best features of both QNX and BlackBerry 6.1. It will also be RIM’s first OS to be used on both PlayBooks and BlackBerry devices. The project is codenamed “Highlander,” apparently a reference to the movie of the same name where “there can be only one.”
BlackBerry 7 is currently in the “early stages” of development. RIM is looking to have it out sometime in 2012.
Meanwhile, it appears that BlackBerry 6.1 is falling behind schedule due to “miscommunication between teams in the critical path of the project.” BlackBerry 6.1, based on an OS now almost 10 years old, is pushing the limits of what can be done and a number of unspecified features could disappear. One new feature called “Liquid Graphics” promises to add some ‘wow’ to the platform though.