Blackberry unveils BBX, offers free apps

Blackberry-maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) unveiled its new unified operating system at its annual DevCon conference in San Francisco Tuesday, one day after promising users up to $100 in free apps following a lengthy service disruption last week. Known as BBX, the new platform combines the QNX operating system used on RIM’s Playbook tablet with the system on its Blackberry smartphones and provides access and support for RIM’s cloud services, Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s co-CEO, said at the conference. Critics expressed disappointment that company did not release any new smartphones running on BBX. Much of the talk Tuesday focused on how the operating system would make life easier for third-party application developers and how it would support applications designed for Google Inc.’s increasingly popular Android operating system. Third-party developers have complained about designing apps for RIM’s fleet of Blackberry smartphones, which often differ in terms of processing speeds, screen sizes and touchscreen capabilities. Lazaridis noted that there are now more than 70 million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide downloading apps. "I cannot underscore just how important you are to us," Lazaridis said, "and we look forward to working with you." The announcement came one day after RIM apologized to customers affected by more than three days of service disruptions last week and offered them $100 worth of free premium applications. Available to users starting Wednesday and through the end of the year, the applications include functional products like voice translation, photo editing and text reader services as well as popular games like Sims 3, Bejeweled, Texas Hold’em Poker 2.

Blackberry unveils BBX, offers free apps

News | 10/19/2011 8:01 pm EDT

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