Thread: RIM Gives Reason For No OS 7 Theme Builder

Many have been wondering why there has not been a theme builder for OS 7 devices yet. There has not been much said by RIM regarding the issue other than they were working on it. Surprisingly it wasn't even revealed a DevCon this past week. Now we have a little more of an idea to why there has been a delay. A tweet from Alec Saunders, RIM's new VP of Developer Relations, states that the theme engine has been delayed because

"Liquid Graphics broke theme engines, and I’m working with team to determine if we can fix.”

So at least now we have some closure to why it has not been released. Hopefully the issue will get resolved soon. I am excited to see what some of the talented theme developers will come up with. Are you a theme developer just itching to create a theme for OS 7?

As much as I like the new BlackBerrys and OS 7, I'm beginning to get ticked that I jumped on the bandwagon for the new devices since apps aren't getting developed that quickly. I keep running into "app not available" or "app not compatible". I can understand why developers aren't wasting all that many cycles, what with yet another new OS being developed. Next year's BlackBerrys will run BBX and developers will need to change their apps once again.

I think RIM is trying to get away from Theme Builder for QNX devices. The reason: one less thing to focus on when making a supreme OS. Themes are a nice feature to have, but it's not what makes the OS. Just look at Apple and Android, both platforms are demanded because of the OS, not because of themes. And while once can mod their iPhone or Droid with a theme, it's not something the average user would go through the process to do. I think there will continue to be a theming market, but I think it may come not at the expense of RIM. Which is fine if you think about it. Remember that themes were a huge success even before RIM took over Plazmic theme builder and had themes in App World. Mobihand had controlled the distribution market. We'll see...

I would not be surprised if themes will be altogether pulled from QNX based devices.

Originally Posted by ice2921

I would not be surprised if themes will be altogether pulled from QNX based devices.

A lot of people don't realize that many themes have scalable vector graphics applied. When you have such a solid and built in OS like QNX it's not practical to allow for extreme changes.

Originally Posted by Joe Jerde

A lot of people don't realize that many themes have scalable vector graphics applied. When you have such a solid and built in OS like QNX it's not practical to allow for extreme changes.

Exactly why I could care less about having a theme.

Exactly, i'd rather have a solid OS than an OS that can change themes... it's just plain logic

If theme builder does continue with RIM in BBX, I imagine it will be limited to icons and colors and not allowing for total homescreen customization.