The coming BlackBerry ‘BlackPad’ tablet will not be running BlackBerry OS 6. At least according to the Wall Street Journal and its sources—which I tend to believe a lot more than anything else floating around the internet. In fact, Research In Motion (RIM) is planning on eventually switching all of its products to a new operating system being developed by recently acquired QNX Software Systems. QNX’s operating system is UNIX based, and already powers stuff from nuclear power plants to high-tech military technology. You know what this means? Rest in peace BlackBerry OS 6. We hardly knew you.

Wait, what? Yes, RIM seems to have no faith in its own BlackBerry operating system. It just released version 6 with the launch of the new Torch 9800 and is still working on getting it to older devices. Even some of its new models like the Curve 3G are waiting to get the new OS. The big question is why. The answer? BB OS 6 just can’t cut the mustard.

Before you get up in arms, let me reassure you that this is a good thing. The traditional BlackBerry OS is dated. Very dated. We all know how long it takes to boot up and how much of a pain it is to install and uninstall applications with it. I’ve had my own horror stories with it in the past as I am sure many readers have. The simple truth is that RIM has kept adding stuff into it while letting the basic framework underneath crumble under the strain.

I might be going out on a limb here, but it is kind of like the Windows Millenium Edition of smartphone operating systems. There is a reason why Microsoft decided that it needed to get its private customers onto a Windows NT framework. The old stuff just wasn’t cutting it anymore and its customers deserved better. So do RIM’s.

A fresh BlackBerry OS is just what the company needs right now. OS 6 will still eventually find its way to your current handset, but in the next few years, all new models of BlackBerrys will be running the yet unreleased QNX OS. I think it is a good thing. As long as the team from QNX and RIM’s BB OS team can work together to make sure that the user interface is intuitive and simple, it should be win-win for everyone.

Tell me in the comments if you think RIM is making the right move by shifting to a whole new OS or should OS 6 be given at least a fighting chance? Right now it looks like RIM knows its current operating system just isn’t capable of transitioning into the new decade.