RIM Plans to Launch its First QNX-based Smartphone – BlackBerry Colt

Bracing itself for the ‘real’, cut-throat smartphone race, Research in Motion (RIM) has already put its conceptual QNX-based devices into the works. At least that’s what a report on BGR leads us to believe. Most of us were introduced to the operating system, QNX via the company’s PlayBook tablet, which didn’t quite live up to everyone’s expectations. 

Powered by QNX (Image source: new-cell-phone.org)

The report further goes on to state that tentatively in the first quarter of the next year, we should start seeing these QNX-powered smartphones strutting around in the market. Called the BlackBerry Colt, for now at least, the smartphone is being rumored to pack a single-core processor. Now, this may seem a little disappointing for RIM fans, since the Colt would come out at a time when its strongest competitors would have their best smartphones pack in quad-core processors and dual-core processors, to say the least. However, the report speculates that although the current internal testing on the phone is being carried out using the single-core chip, the chances of it making a switch just before its launch are not dim.

Research in Motion has to now play its cards right, since there is just too much competition out there. Owing to the mighty iPhone, and the budding Android platform-based phones, the popularity of the once popular BlackBerry has been dipping. Hence, a lot depends on the BlackBerry Colt.