Tuesday, April 29,2008 @ 12:35pm
Research in Motion to develop for iPhone?
Research in Motion, originator of the popular BlackBerry smartphone, may in fact be seeking to develop applications for Apple's iPhone, anonymous sources tell AppleInsider. A job listing for such a role is said to be circulating internally, with so few details that even RIM employees may not fully understand what their work will entail. "As part of a newly-created team, you’ll influence the development and design of BlackBerry software," the notice reads. "This is a very confidential brand new team and a senior position within RIM so I can't provide too many details. I guess you can figure out what it might be about though."
The position does have some specified requirements however, namely familiarity with Mac development in Cocoa and Objective C. Applicants must also be familiar with Javascript and XML, but knowledge of Sync Services, Bluetooth and USB are merely considered assets.
It is unknown why RIM would consider developing on Apple's platform; the project could be an attempt at reverse-engineering certain concepts, but it may be more likely that RIM is developing a client that would access BlackBerry push e-mail from an iPhone. The e-mail is a special pay service that continues to be in high demand, and has in the past been opened to Samsung.
RIM may also be hedging some bets, as the upcoming introduction of Exchange e-mail for the iPhone may hurt the appeal of BlackBerries amongst professional users. The latter's advantage could become only its physical QWERTY keyboard, generally agreed to be easier than Apple's on-screen equivalent.