RIM considers offering OS third-party manufacturers

Research In Motion’s CEO, Thorsten Heins has repeated previous suggestions that the company could license its forthcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system to other companies – but has said that the launch of the OS and its associated new smartphones is the company’s current priority.

In an interview with Die Welt, Heins confirmed that the company might look at alliances with other handset manufacturers. Until now, BlackBerry has been the sole handset manufacturer using its own OS and has shunned licensing its OS to other parties, or using outside software on its handsets.

Heins also left open the possibility that the company would sell the handset hardware division and become a pure software player, saying only that all things are still open to consideration.

A sale of the handset division would also almost certainly require the new owner to become one of the first companies to license the BlackBerry OS software platform.

The new OS is due to be launched at the end of this month.

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