Bloomberg is reporting today that the BlackPad from RIM (Research in Motion) will be using an operating system built and developed by QNX Software Systems.
Companies that already use QNX software include GE, Cisco Systems and Caterpillar. The move is certainly a departure from what we thought RIM would do. We figured an upscaled version of BlackBerry OS 6 would be used in a similar way to how iOS from the iPhone is slightly modified and made to fit the larger Apple iPad screen.
What the report does suggest though is that although BlackBerry OS 6 is new, some of the code inside is legacy code from previous versions. To make a worth OS for a tablet RIM would need to do something like Microsoft [MSFT] and cut all ties to the older version and start afresh.
It will be certainly interesting to see what RIM can do with the so called BlackPad (if it’s even called that). Apple has taken the lead in the new generation tablet race and I personally think that if RIM get it right, they could have something decent to sell.
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