RIM CEO: BlackBerry 10 ready for licensing 'soon'
updated 12:01 pm EDT, Tue August 14, 2012
Heins interview confirms licensing possibility
Research in Motion may be able to license the BlackBerry 10 operating system to other handset manufacturers in the near future. In an interview with Bloomberg, CEO Thorsten Heins effectively confirmed that the OS could be licensed to others as QNX, the software backbone on which BlackBerry 10 is largely based, which has already been used in the automotive industry, nuclear plants and in military drones.
Because of the existing extensive licensing of QNX, Heins suggested "we could do that if we chose to." Although not a definite yes or no to licensing to others, it does open the door to partnering with other manufacturers in more limiting sectors than RIM is used to, such as developing rather than developed markets. Licensing the software to others is viewed as a potential way to bolster investor confidence—RIM's stock price jump by 13 percent after speculation that Samsung may become a licensee.
The BB10 platform is apparently in the last stages of testing by RIM, with Heins now using a BB10 handset for his own use. On competing against iOS and Android handsets, "We're here to win. We're not here to fight for third or fourth place" he claimed.
