By Graham K. Rogers

There have been a number of rumours concerning iOS 7 and its imminent arrival. As the newest iPhones are due to go on sale this Friday (20 September) it would seem logical that iOS 7 will be made available for the new devices, or a little before.

As some have noted, there is currently a rush of updated apps appearing in the iTunes App Store with the anticipation also of a new version of iTunes (11.1) as well. Some reports noted that an updated version of iTunes appeared in the latest developer build of OS X, 10.9 Mavericks earlier today.

Some are also expecting that Blackberry will have an event on 18 September (tomorrow) announcing the long-awaited release of its Blackberry Messenger (BBM) system for iOS and Android, although this may have had more of an impact a year ago. With the other messaging apps now available, this may be about as effective as a late-arriving Microsoft Office for iOS (should that ever occur).

Nonetheless, as a number of sources speculate, there is to be a release event this week and the timing is likely to be significant as this would dovetail rather neatly with the arrival of the latest OS for the iPhone and iPad, iOS7.

Needless to say, I have checked my iPhone already and 6.1.3 remains persistently up to date. I have also searched the iTunes App Store for "Blackberry" and "BBM" with no results. Tomorrow - 18 September - may be another story.

Update on the Update

Additional Information

• BBM for Android, iOS iPhone Release Date of Sept 18 Nearing, BlackBerry Announces App Launch Event Invitation (Bret Urgamy, States Chronicles)
• BlackBerry may launch BBM for Android, iOS in India this week (FirstPost)
• BlackBerry's September 18 event shaping up as global BBM Android and iOS launch (Richard Goodwin, Know Your Mobile)
• BlackBerry Messenger for iOS was submitted to Apple for review two weeks ago, awaits approval (Bla1ze, Crackberry)
• BBM for Android and iPhone landing pages surface (Simon Sage, Crackberry)
• BlackBerry holding mystery event on Sept. 18th in Malaysia (Bla1ze, Crackberry)
• BlackBerry Sending Out Invites to International Launch Events (Berry Review)

  
  

  Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.