BlackBerry OS 7 won’t be backwards compatible

Big news is coming from BlackBerry this week, with new devices and services being announced from the smartphone manufacturer, but it’s also introducing a brand-spankin’ new OS: BlackBerry OS 7. We haven’t seen much of the new mobile operating system at this point, but we expect to catch plenty of it along with its new features some time this week.

The bad news, however, is that older devices won’t be able to upgrade to BB OS 7. Why? RIM says that it won’t be offering the upgrade to older models because of tight device integration. So, we can expect new BlackBerry hardware to be powerhouses if the new OS requires new hardware, or at least to be tied closely to newer hardware.

I’m sure that some eager hackers in the BlackBerry community will make this work – or at least make it available – for older handsets, but it just might not bring the same experience if the new OS will be limited by older hardware–that includes the Torch, too.