RIM's Heins Says BlackBerry 10 Soon Ready To Be Licensed

Research In Motion CEO Thorsten Heins said the company's BlackBerry 10 platform will soon be ready for licensing by other manufacturers, and he touted machine-to-machine applications as another avenue where the software could be used.

Heins said the software is going through the final stages of testing and RIM is now thinking of which companies might license it. RIM plans to release its first BlackBerry 10 smartphones in the first quarter of next year. However, Heins has been more open recently about licensing the software as a way to lift RIM's prospects.
BlackBerry 10 is based on QNX architecture, which RIM bought in 2010 for $200 million. The QNX system, which also powers nuclear power plants and cars, also is the software behind RIM's PlayBook tablet.


"QNX is already licensed across the automotive sector--we could do that with BB10 if we chose to," Heins, who has begun to carry a BlackBerry 10 phone for his own use, said in an interview with Bloomberg. "The platform can be licensed."

Samsung Electronics has openly denied any interest in licensing the software, despite persistent rumors that it will do so. While Samsung, the world's largest handset vendor, has found plenty of favor in the market with its Google Android smartphones, it also uses Microsoft's Windows Phone and its own bada platform.

"Smartphones are a part of our business, but we're looking way beyond this," Heins said. In a separate interview with CNET, Heins said that companies in the healthcare and smart grid markets have already expressed interest in BlackBerry 10, though he did not name any specific firms.

The RIM chief also told CNET that one of the "strategic options" the company is considering is opening its proprietary BlackBerry network to other industries. Currently, the network is used to ferry BlackBerry data traffic and secure communications.

RIM Considering Splitting Business

According to a new report, RIM may be planning to split its handset and messaging divisions up. This rumor originated from U.K. newspaper The Sunday Times. The publication claims that RIM is considering breaking off its device business into a separate company or straight up selling it, with both Amazon and Facebook named as possible buyers. As for the messaging side of things, RIM could decide to open its platform up to competitors like Apple and Google to help raise some income. It's also said that another option for RIM could be to keep the company together but to sell a stake of it to a larger firm, like Microsoft.

This certainly isn't the first time that we've heard that a big change for RIM may be in the works, and there's even been rumors claiming that the company may open up BlackBerry Messenger to iOS and Android, although that's something that we recently heard won't be happening. We do know that the BlackBerry-manufacturer has hired JP Morgan and RBC Capital Markets to help explore its strategic options, but so far RIM hasn't shed any light on what it may end up doing. I'm sure that RIM is weighing all of its options, though, and it'll be interesting to see what route it ends up taking. What do you all think RIM should do? Should it sell off its handset business or open up BBM to other platforms? Or should it just keep doing what it's been doing?

RIM's Manufacturing Partner Ends BlackBerry Production

Research In Motion accounted for 19 percent of contract manufacturing partner Celestica’s revenue in its last quarter. By the end of this year, it will account for none at all.

Over the next three to six months, Celestica will cease production of the handsets it has been making for RIM, as the struggling BlackBerry maker streamlines its supply chain. A tough break for Celestica, whose long-running contract with RIM and nearly one-fifth of its revenue is now just another casualty of RIM’s plan to trim roughly $1 billion from its operating costs by the end of fiscal 2013.

And for RIM? A necessity. And an inevitability. Celestica mostly produced BlackBerry components for the North American market, a region where BlackBerry sales have declined dramatically. It doesn’t take an Etruscan haruspex to see that cuts were coming, as RIM’S mound of inventory grew and demand for its handsets fell. Supplier consolidation typically follows declines in volume, and that’s precisely what’s going on here.

“We are making changes to our supply chain as part of wider efforts to improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of RIM’s operations to help meet our strategic objectives and to deliver long-term value to our stakeholders,” RIM said in a statement.