Research In Motion announced at Lotusphere 2008 some of the previously reported features in the forthcoming BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1 Service Pack 5, including Document Downloading and Editing, Remote Search and Retrieval, Free / Busy Calendar Lookup, and HTML email. The previous official roadmap from Research In Motion delivered these new feature enhancements coinciding with the release of device OS 4.3.x and above. According to the press release from RIM today, it seems these features have been delayed to the previously unknown OS 4.5. This OS has been confirmed for release for the entire 8000 series family, including the 8700 series, although it does not currently have support for the unreleased BlackBerry 9000 as far as we can tell.
To say the feature exclusion for the unreleased OS version 4.3.x, which is supposed to be out in the next couple months, is quite disappointing is an understatement. No word on release dates for OS 4.3.1 or OS 4.5.0 or OS 5.0.0, although we have heard that OS 4.3.1 has since been delayed at least one or two months from the previously rumored February release date. We’ve even obtained beta releases of OS 4.3.1 as recent as two weeks ago, but we’re not sure on the fate of this OS release. Honestly, with the new press release from RIM uncovering this new OS 4.5, we have to wonder exactly when we’ll have the ability to use these new features we’ve been foaming over for a few months now. Research In Motion has now officially become Readily Involving Molasses.
