RIM To Develop iPhone Applications?

[Saladinos]

Things this could be:
* Blackberry synch software for Mac (most likely IMO)
* Blackberry connect client for iPhone (possible)
Of course, the team could be responsible for BOTH of these.

But something that hasn't been mentioned yet:
What if apple was looking to license iPhoneOS and the fingerworks chipsets developed for the iPhone to other manufacturers? This might not be such a bad idea, even if unlikely... There is no dominant provider of software for cellphones at this time, Symbian, Microsoft, Linux all have a share, but of these:
Symbian hasn't grown to handle the type of content consumers want from next generation phones.
WindowsMobile hasn't gained significant traction and is seen as buggy and sluggish
Linux is too fragmented and there is no consistency

Lets not forget that Apple is the most respected company interms of software interface design. And lets also not forget that Apple has always been "A Software Company".

We all know that Apple likes the iTunes store model, so far it does Music, Movies, TV Shows, Apps for iPod, soon it will do Apps for iPhoneOS. At the moment, the market for Apps on the iPhone is limited to the number of handsets in Circulation, what if there were more iPhoneOS handsets?

Lets not forget that the phone market is not the Mac Market, apple has previously licensed Motorola phones to work with iTunes and the ITMS in a move to create a larger market for ITMS. In licensing iPhoneOS Apple would gain royalties from manufacturers for the OS and would sell the fingerworks chips to the manufacturers as well, it would then stand to make money selling Apps and content via the iTunes store.

So why would RIM get in on the action? RIM wants a different kind of customer to Apple, it wants the business user and the Enterprise that will buy a BES or pay for a hosted BES service, Apple wants the consumer who will buy content, sure Apple would like to sell iPhones to business, but its not the core market.

Other reasons why this would be great:
* Standardisation of accessories (via Dock connector) -> More Accessories
* Larger market for developers -> More Apps -> More revenue from ITMS
* More iTunes compatible devices -> More music sales from ITMS and less issue regarding monopoly laws, especially if apple allowed branding of iTunes portals for the other manufacturers.

Also this whole business could explain the PA Semi purchase, if apple is making an embedded play it may well be looking to create more chips that help to accellerate it's software for other embedded scenarios, e.g. in car entertainment, storage products, set top boxes (AppleTV 3.0), etc.

Apple won't license the iPhone version of OSX, just like they won't license the real OSX. If you want to know why, just look back at your own post.

Apple let the Motorola ROKR interface with iTunes, and it flopped. Big time. They also licensed OS9 to 3rd parties, and those were all rubbish as well. Apple have enough experience in the software industry to realise that everyone else is rubbish. If they want to make a good product, they have to have total control over it. Hardware and software. If they license mobile OSX, the other devices will be sub-par, the manufacturers will blame Apple, who will have to change the OS enough to make it such. That's what Microsoft does with Windows. Apple doesn't want that kind of mess.

Also, the entire post is invalid because you make the assumption that Apple makes significant income from microtransactions in the stores. They don't. iTunes offers artists and record labels a much higher %-age than its rivals in digital or physical format. The reason for that is simple - if iTunes is successful, the iPod will be successful. They sacrifice a potential profit source in the store to make the products it works with more attractive and successful. That's been their business plan since 2001, and they're repeating it with the App Store.

One thing they do charge for, though, is the "made for iPod" label and dock specifications (it's not a standard. Lord no). Again, the fee isn't massive, but its enough to make sure only quality products get released. Apple tends to use fees as more of a quality control mechanism than a source of income. Because that makes the devices it's meant for (iPod) more attractive.

Karl

 

[DeuceDeuce]

Sweet, crackberry on the iPhone!