According to the latest speculation doing the rounds, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is all set to license its software to other handset original equipment manufacturers, including Samsung and HTC, reports BGR. Citing analyst firm Jefferies & Co.’s Peter Misek, who had also confirmed reports of the company replacing Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie from the co-chairman position, with board member Barbara Symiest, the report indicates that RIM has agreed to license its QNX based new operating system, Blackberry 10 to Samsung, HTC, and possibly others. In a note, Misek has said," We think some of this has already been started with RIM likely agreeing to license Blackberry 10 to Samsung, HTC, and possibly others.This would help create a critical mass for the ecosystem and maintain RIM’s monthly service revenue; however, it puts more pressure on the hardware business in the short term. Longer term, it possibly gets people hooked on the RIM ecosystem and may in fact allow them to sell more BB 10 handsets (if they are able to create compelling handsets)." So if this turns out to be true, won't it hamper the company's own prospects in the hardware business? Or does it mark a shift in the company's position from being an integrated device maker to software and solutions play, as was evident in the recent launch of the Fusion Device Management Suite, which allowed enterprise customers to manage multiple devices including mobile phones and tablets running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems, in addition to BlackBerry devices, from…
