The new RIM virtual keyboard

RIM has tried to harness the passion its users have for its physical keyboards in virtual keyboards before, most notably with the poorly received SureType system on the BlackBerry Storm.

This new approach is more akin to some of the popular third-party keyboards available for Android, like SwiftKey. Essentially, the keyboard predicts your next word, based on info it collects from previous messages, and puts a link to this word on the keyboard. Users can then swipe up from this first letter to enter the entire word in a single keystroke.