RIM: Thorsten Heins wants to license BB10 software to other manufacturers
 

Canadian Wireless Trade ShowRIM: Thorsten Heins wants to license BB10 software to other manufacturers

In an interview with the Telegraph, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins reports BlackBerry is willing to license its BB10 software to other manufacturers.

“We don’t have the economy of scale to compete against the guys who crank out 60 handsets a year. We have to differentiate and have a focused platform.” Said Heins.

Thorsten Heins goes on to say, “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 univestigating.”

It appears that BlackBerry will look to manufacturers Sharp or Samsung to develop hardware around the new BB10 software.

BlackBerry currently is the OS preferred by 90 per cent of the Fortune 500 market, and is the leading mobile seller in the UK. RIM has also seen a 140-per cent subscriber increase in developing worlds and currently still lifts a 75-million subscriber list.

So what can manufacturers and BB10 fans look forward to?

BlackBerry devices now can potentially navigate cars, entertainment and gaming systems, integrate and easily beam file content during conference meetings to compatible tablets. RIM also plans to unveil a new 4G PlayBook tablet, and new touchscreen keyboard, arguably the best in the mobile industry in January 2013.

But how will all these innovations develop when BB10 is fragmented?

Would you buy a Samsung BB10 phone?

Re: RIM: Thorsten Heins wants to license BB10 software to other manufacturers
 

please explain you theory on fragmentation, I dont see it

Apple used Samsung screens, shoud it be an iSamsung?

many part in the smartphones come from similar suppliers

Re: RIM: Thorsten Heins wants to license BB10 software to other manufacturers
 

Yes, hardware wise. However, this is about the BB10 software. That would be like iOS being on Samsung devices, not the screens. It is basically how Android is, their OS is on HTC, Motorola, Samsung, etc. BB10 would be the same way.

Re: RIM: Thorsten Heins wants to license BB10 software to other manufacturers
 

And unless they strictly control the hardware specs, they could end up with a bunch of cheap clones which take away from their market share (think IBM PC clones in the mid 80s). And they had better not lose control of the APIs - otherwise you end up like Android... And the whole "security thing" would go away.