RIM Pays Off Nokia; Patent Dispute Settled 23
Today Nokia announced an agreement with Research In Motion to resolve all patent legislation between the two. The companies have been fighting over patents for almost a decade, most recently over devices with wireless LAN capabilities. The terms of today's agreement were not disclosed but it involved a one-time payment from RIM as well as ongoing payments. This agreement comes shortly after RIM's announcement that it pulled in $9 million in profit last quarter, down 97% from the $265 million they earned in the same quarter the year before. The company has pinned its hopes on BlackBerry 10, scheduled to launch next month: "So this is RIM at the end of 2012: losing subscribers and revenue, facing significant opponents, but with more cash on hand and at least one long-running lawsuit settled. If nothing else, it means the way is clear for RIM to launch its Hail Mary pass: BlackBerry 10."
Re:I wish them luck (Score:4, Informative)
Big business with security requirements, government entities, anyone that creates lots of emails (we have two large groups of mobile users, one primarily consumes data and they've all switched to iphone, the other group primarily uses their phones to communicate and so they've stayed on Blackberry, we told both groups we don't care which way you decide to go, we'll support either) and anyone still on Lotus Notes or who have developed large numbers of inhouse apps for Blackberry (many companies have dispatch apps that are gateways to their greenscreens where the cost to develop a new application far outweighs any potential benefit of going to another platform).
Re:I wish them luck (Score:4, Informative)