The sound of crickets chirping were heard throughout the land when Research in Motion CEO Thorsten Heins said the company is investigating different options for BlackBerry 10. He suggested that the BB10 platform could be licensed to other companies.
Research In Motion hasn’t yet committed to licensing its forthcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system, but the steady string of comments to that effect coming from its leadership certainly suggest that it is preparing to.
“QNX is already licensed across the automotive sector — we could do that with BB10 if we chose to,” Heins said. “The platform can be licensed.”
While the statement is not confirmation that RIM will license the BB10 OS, it seems to be an indication they would consider it — if they could find someone who’d be interested, that is.
AllThingsD considers this a fishing expedition of sorts. Throw the OS license worm out there and see if any interested fish take a nibble. But who would show any interest? Nokia is locked in with Microsoft. Motorola, Samsung, and HTC sure seem happy with Android.
BlackBerry’s global sales tumbled 43 percent last quarter, as RIM has struggled to complete with the sexier offerings of Android and iOS devices. Heins says BB10 will change RIM’s fortunes.
“We’re here to win,” he said. “We’re not here to fight for third or fourth place.”
