RIM snubs Android, open to license BB OS instead

Despite the steep decline and continuous struggle to keep things in tow, Research in Motion CEO Thorsten Heins still has faith in reviving the once thriving Blackberry empire.

When Joshua Topolsky of The Verge asked Heins regarding his decision on not following the same path that Samsung and Nokia has taken (embracing Android and Windows Phone) Heins has made it clear that Samsung already serves a key role in the Android kingdom while the others are just desperately trailing behind, “You and I know that Samsung’s playing a very strong hardware game… on hardware innovation, and they do it well, but look at the other players. Android is starting to fragment and fork”.

He firmly stated that they don’t intend on adopting the Android platform over their very own Blackberry ecosystem due to the lack of control that handset-makers have over the platform, he wants full control of the product that he’s selling.

We were surprised when Heins has made it clear that they are indeed open to the idea of licensing the unreleased Blackberry 10 OS to OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) such as HTC. “That’s certainly part of the framework that we’re looking into,” Heins stated, Topolsky has stressed the involvement of HTC but the chief has only given him this response: “I want BlackBerry 10 to be the mobile computing platform of choice, for various segments, not just smartphones or tablets.” Heins is certainly hinting that his plans for the Blackberry 10 is not limited to just tablets and smartphones, what else could he be hiding up his sleeves?

Heins even went on to compare his company with Nokia — which is also suffering from the same fate — “I think we’re in a different position, we have roughly 80 million users today — Nokia doesn’t have that, they’re not in the service play, they have no value on top of the handsets.” -true enough, once a Nokia device is sold, the company and its customers aren’t linked in any way other than Warranty coverage and upcoming purchases. With Blackberry, RIM and its customers are closely tied up through their exclusive services, which is exactly what Heins is trying to preserve and improve.

Heins strongly believes that he can still regain the massive user base that Blackberry once had by providing better services to its current customers and attract new ones with the help of their Blackberry 10 devices which are due to hit the market by early next year.