RIM may bring BlackBerry services to iOS users

RIM may break a longstanding policy against apps for non-BlackBerry platforms if a job listing is an indicator. The position for a Senior iOS Mobile Developer wants someone who can design and write enterprise iPad and iPhone apps. As proof that apps themselves are important, any potential hire has to show examples of published App Store titles.

The company has already partly broken from tradition with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, a desktop app meant to manage iOS and Android devices along with BlackBerrys. Any app might be to administer Mobile Fusion from an iOS device and not necessarily a whole service replacement.

If it does represent a public-facing app, it could validate a long-unfulfilled rumor of RIM porting BlackBerry Messenger to other platforms. While RIM has tried to keep BBM as a selling point of the BlackBerry and will even have a dedicated BBM key on future BlackBerry Curves, its diminishing market share and the existences of equal or superior services like iMessage and Kik has dampened that advantage.

The attempt to disconnect BBM from the BlackBerry is partly for RIM's own necessity in moving its platform forward. As even BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 can't use BBM because of its inherent tying to cellular hardware, the company has been faced with either leaving some of its devices without a major feature or changing the service in a way that would inherently open it up to other platforms. [via AllThingsD]

By Electronista Staff

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iPhone, industry, enterprise, BlackBerry, RIM, App Store, mobile phones, Apple, PlayBook, Kik, BlackBerry Messenger, iMessage