We have received information from a very credible source that OS 4.3.1, mentioned in conjunction with BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1 Service Pack 5 in November’s Connecting With The Experts webinar and apparently forgotten in yesterday’s press release from RIM at Lotusphere, has actually been re-branded as OS 4.5. There will be nothing missing from this new version that is packaged with the same enhancements previously reported with OS 4.3.x, including long-awaited HTML e-mail capabilities. As initial carrier certification comes to a close, the general availability dates are still expected to fall somewhere between late February and the few months following, depending on the carrier.
This morning’s official press release made more than a few heads in the online BlackBerry community perform a double-take, as OS 4.3.1 beta releases have been highly visible in various circles since carrier certification began last October. Per our sources, due to the number of enhancements being added to the OS, it was a marketing decision to change the version number. As we’ve previously mentioned, this should be perhaps the most anticipated OS releases for end-users since the release of OS 4.0, nearly three years ago.
