BlackBerry OS

 

 BlackBerry OS 

BlackBerry OS is a proprietary mobile operating system designed specifically for Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry devices. The BlackBerry OS runs on Blackberry variant phones like the BlackBerry Bold, Curve, Pearl and Storm series.

The BlackBerry OS is designed for smartphone environments and is best known for its robust support for push Internet email. This push email functionality is carried out through the dedicated BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), which has versions for Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino and Novell Groupwise.

Other mobile operating systems like Android, Microsoft Windows Mobile and Symbian can run on different brands of mobile phones; the BlackBerry OS can run only on BlackBerry phones. BlackBerry OS is similar to Apple’s iOS in this regard.

Traditionally, BlackBerry applications are written using Java, particularly the Java Micro Edition (Java ME) platform. However, RIM introduced the BlackBerry Web development platform in 2010, which makes use of the widget software development kit (SDK) to create small standalone Web apps made up of HTML, CSS and JavaScript code.

Those who opt to develop through Java can use the BlackBerry Java Development Environment (JDE), an integrated development environment (IDE) that comes with an editor, debugger, device simulator and memory viewer. The JDE can be downloaded from the BlackBerry website. It can be used either as a standalone or as a plug-in for Eclipse, a graphical IDE. Other tools that are used in conjunction with the JDE are the RAPC compiler and the Sun Java compiler.

There are three ways of installing apps on a BlackBerry OS: downloading an app from BlackBerry App World, over-the-air through the device’s built-in browser and via the BlackBerry Desktop Manager.