BlackBerry maker RIM has one of the bigger, more fascinating challenges in the whole world of tech: It makes some of the most successful, beloved devices on the planet, but its aging software platform is a dead end. At its WES 2010 conference today, the company previewed the upcoming BlackBerry 6 OS–due in the third quarter of this year–in a video that was clearly meant more to tantalize than to inform.

We can tell that it looks as much or more like the iPhone (and Android, and WebOS) than the current BlackBerry OS. We see social-media feeds and multimedia features, but only a hint of the modern new WebKit-based browser. We don’t actually get a peek at a phone, but the Minority Report-like floating display has a virtual keyboard rather than plastic keys. (Which I hope and assume doesn’t mean that BlackBerry is giving up on physical keys–seems like the most exciting possible next-generation BlackBerry would still be an awesome phone that happened to have an excellent real keyboard.)

Here’s the video–BlackBerry users, does it leave you excited, apprehensive, or a bit of both?

 
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