I've worked with QNX on embedded systems for years. IMO it is the best RTOS out there. I think it was very smart for RIM to buy QNX earlier this year. They obviously did that so they could use QNX as a future operating system on their devices.

I'd be willing to bet that on phones running similar hardware/processors, that a QNX powered device will run circles around any Android or iOS4 device. Instead of Android fans bashing the multitasking of iOS4, QNX fans can bash the multitasking of Android (or pretty much anything out there).

The only hurdle they'll have is getting developers to support the platform so they can get a good base of apps. There are a lot of developers familiar with QNX from numerous industries. I wonder how many of them will see this as an opportunity to start developing for phones/tablets? And the best part is these developers are probably working on mission-critical stuff. Not stupid little games or joke apps. I can't wait to see what some of them come up with.


RabidRat: Did you ever download QNX's OS/browser on a floppy? For everyone else, QNX would let you download an image file for a 1.44MB floppy. You booted this floppy in your PC and got a running OS with GUI and a browser. It would configure itself to your hardware, determine your internet settings and off you went browsing the internet. All from a single 1.44MB image. Compared to the bloated OS's we see today, QNX is as lean and efficient as you can get. Which makes it perfect for mobile devices.

I'd wait to see what RIM does with all this power that they claim the powerbook is gonna harness. Hopefully it's put to good use. :) I'd much rather be able to tether my phone to my tablet, rather than pay a separate data fee for it. This brings up a key point I think though, the Playbook isn't gonna be as successful as the Ipad with it's marked down Blackberry pricing and non 3g-ness, which equates to less incentive for carriers to push the product. Hopefully rogers will come up with some 1-2gb plan that customers can upgrade to when buying a playbook. I'm interested to see what happens.

On the subject of the OS, I'm wondering how RIM/developers are going to address the leap from a small 2.5'' screen to 7" one. They're gonna run into bigger issues than Apple did porting apps from the phone to the pad, as not only is the playbook larger, but runs a completely different OS. RIM isn't exactly gonna have developers rushing to the playbook, not with it's crappy developing pricing setup.