RIM is considering a move to license the Blackberry 10 OS to other device manufacturers. RIM CEO Thorstein Heins said that RIM is not really in a position to compete effectively with other device-makers and instead considers working with them.
“We don’t have the economy of scale to compete against the guys who crank out 60 handsets a year,” RIM CEO Thorstein Heins told The Telegraph. “We have to differentiate and have a focused platform. To deliver BB10 we may need to look at licensing it to someone who can do this at a way better cost proposition than I can do it. There’s different options we could do that we’re currently investigating.”
“You could think about us building a reference system, and then basically licensing that reference design, have others build the hardware around it – either it’s a BlackBerry or it’s something else being built on the BlackBerry platform. We’re investigating this and it’s way too early to get into any details. We have to also model this from a finance perspective – that’s why we’re working with the financial advisers to see if we do this where would it take the company. Either we do it ourselves or we do it with a partner. But we will not abandon the subscriber base.”
So it should not come as a surprise if we see a Samsung or Sony smartphone developed on the Blackberry OS. Looks like this is one of the reasons they have delayed the release of Blackberry 10 devices, weighing options of future business on the OS. Can Blackberry 10 be the next Android or Meego?
