[timmy t]

Can someone explain why there seems to be different OS releases for almost every BB phone model, rather than just one? Is that strictly due to carrier modifications or what?
And there seem to be leaked and official versions. What is this all about?

[drmike]

I was wondering the same thing seeing how my 9800 Torch from Telus hasn't seen a software update in close to 2 years since I got it.

[iskaheen]

If you have the 9800, you may be running OS 6. Most of the updates have been for OS 7.
However, there is an update for OS 6 that came out within the last week and it was advertised here. So check the news that was posted here for the last week and you will find it.

[Alex_Hong]

Can someone explain why there seems to be different OS releases for almost every BB phone model, rather than just one? Is that strictly due to carrier modifications or what?
And there seem to be leaked and official versions. What is this all about?

I think the main thing is resolution of the devices, and of course some UI differences.

There are some phones with touch screens, some without. Some phones has physical keyboards, some doesn't.

Then on devices like the 9810 and 9860, there are additional UI elements on the display.

So, a lot of variety of devices. Unlike the iPhone, which only has one model per year. But, take iOS 6 for iPhone 4, it will be a different release as well, as it will not support everything, or perhaps it will be the same release, but during installation they'll omit certain files, not sure.

Android has different releases as well for different models. ICS for S3 is not the same as the ICS for S2, or the ICS for HTC One x.

Windows Phone takes it to an even higher level of insanity. Having a different release for different carriers. In my country, there's 3 carriers. Each Lumia 800 for different carrier has its own model number, despite the hardware and software being the same. The difference is only is carrier specific apps and startup logo. But you can't install another carrier's OS, unless you want to flash it manually and do some tweaks on the file name. At least on BB, the OS for another carrier can be installed on the same model of BB.

---

There's virtually no difference between leaked versions and official versions. All are from RIM. Its just that carriers want to test the OS before releasing, and the official versions are simply the one that they release. Leaked version are simply versions that are not via carriers. If both the leak and official version has the same build number, like 7.1.0.523, it will be identical. Only difference will be in the vendor.xml file, which is only use to verify that the phone is on the same carrier as the OS, and that can be deleted with no harm done at all.