RIM CEO Thorsten Heins has confirmed that the company's upcoming operating system can be licensed. The admission follows months of rumors and speculation from analysts drawing the same conclusion, many of whom believe it's the last hope for a RIM recovery.
During an interview with Bloomberg, Heins noted that BlackBerry 10 has reached the final testing stages and they are now looking at how other companies might be able to use the OS. The chief compared it to QNX, the underlying software used in BB10, and how that software is already in use in nuclear plants, vehicles and military drones. "QNX is already licensed across the automotive sector --- we could do that with BB10 if we chose to," Heins said.
Licensing deals could very well boost investor confidence in RIM as evident by a 13 percent jump in stock value following investor speculation with regards to licensing last week. In that note, Peter Misek from Jeffries and Company revived rumors that Samsung might be interested in BB10.
BB10 features multitasking and improved web browsing, just two of the features that it hopes will allow the company to regain market share it once owned. The majority of former RIM users have since become Apple or Google customers as the two continue to battle for market dominance.
Despite the gains last week, RIM's stock has lost nearly 95 percent of its value since mid-2008, or roughly a year after Apple introduced the iPhone. Sales dropped a staggering 43 percent last quarter as the company struggles to move their aging handsets in the wake of new and innovative designs from Android partners.