New BlackBerry Software Not Friendly With Older Touchscreens

BlackBerry introduced a new operating system Tuesday that is designed to work better with touchscreens, which are increasingly popular on smartphones.

But in the list of older phones compatible with this touchscreen-friendly system, two devices are conspicuously absent: BlackBerry’s own older touchscreen phones.

BlackBerry’s newest phone, the Torch, has a touchscreen and will come with the BlackBerry 6 operating system. The Torch, which also made its debut Tuesday, combines a the screen with a slide-out keyboard to entice BlackBerry’s traditional business user.

But the latest operating system is leaving the older touchscreens — the Storm and Storm 2 — behind, despite the fact that the Storm 2 came out only late last year. BlackBerry acknowledged that the new system does not work on the Storm phones.

BlackBerry users have been clamoring for an update to the old operating system, which lagged behind the iPhone and Android platforms in features. In particular, it offered users far fewer apps. The new platform also makes improvements in the way BlackBerry users can tap into social networks like Facebook and media from iTunes and Windows Media Player.

Storm owners might be out of luck — but the devices weren’t a big hit, anyway. The Storm, which came out in 2008, faced complaints of glitches, and by the time the Storm 2 came out, it was considered behind the times.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion did not comment on why the operating system might not be compatible with the phones. But the Electronista blog speculates that the Storm’s use of a “click-down” screen, intended to make typing on the screen feel more like typing on a keyboard, could be a problem.

Phones that will be able to run the new software include the Bold 9700, the Bold 9650 and the Pearl 3G, BlackBerry says. The company did not specify when the operating system would be available for these phones, except to say that it would be “in the months ahead.”