So far we haven’t known quite what to expect from BlackBerry OS 7. It’s shown up on leaked plans for RIM’s upcoming strategy, and with the move to QNX as the OS for the PlayBook, we expected QNX to factor in to some extent. Now we’ve got some insight straight out of RIM, painting OS 7 as an amalgam of BBOS 6.1 and QNX, being developed as part of project Highlander.

On the surface, this information looks more credible than the BBM iPhone rumor we covered earlier today, if only because it stems from an in-house source; this information was supposedly provided by RIM’s CTO of software to internal developers. The Highlander project comes from the movies of the same name, so-called after the line “there can be only one” in reference to the merging of QNX and OS 6.1 into something hopefully greater than the sum of its parts.

Once OS 7 is released, that should be the platform used for not only future BlackBerry phones, but new additions to the PlayBook line as well. It sounds like RIM wants to make the OS visually stunning, so we expect a good deal of work to focus on refining its UI. At the same time, the company is anxious about changing too much, as its users have come to form certain expectations for a BlackBerry device, so balancing that familiar experience with innovation is going to be something RIM needs to be careful with. Development is reportedly targeted for a release sometime next year.

Source: Berry Review