BlackBerry OS 6.0 Release Date Pegged for Q3 2010

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Just earlier last week we’ve seen the all new BlackBerry OS 6.0 in leaked screenshots that appeared all over the web and today, a day ahead of WES 2010, we hear that RIM’s new OS will arrive at some point in the third quarter of the year.

We’re still hoping to see BlackBerry OS 6.0 demoed in all its glory at WES 2010 even if it won’t be available almost immediately to BlackBerry smartphone users. Similarly, iPhone OS 4.0 has already been shown to the world together with its seven tentpole pillars but the OS itself is not going to be available until the iPhone 4G arrives.

RIM’s CEO, Mike Lazaridis talked about BlackBerry 6 today in an analyst call and said it will be available “in the next calendar quarter” which can only be Q3 2010. From what we can gather BlackBerry 6 has been shown on video at said analyst call which means that we might see it too in the following days.

The new OS was confirmed to be arriving to both touchscreen and non-touchscreen BlackBerry smartphones and while RIM will try to make the new mobile platform available to most BlackBerry handsets out there it’s been hinted that not all of them will get OS 6.0. Lazaridis said that RIM will “do [their] best” but he won’t be able to actually guarantee that every Berry out there will be able to run BlackBerry 6, will he?

Lazaridis also spoke about the new WebKit-based browser which we’re expecting BlackBerry 6 to offer and it looks like the new mobile browser will be somehow integrated with the new OS. That sounds pretty interesting and we definitely want more information on it. On a different note it also means that a new WebKit browser might not be coming to BlackBerry OS 5.0 devices, not that you’d need one since most phones will get BlackBerry 6 later on.