RIM: No open-source phone for you

While Google is storming into the mobile market with its open-source Android platform, Research In Motion has declared that open-sourcing its own software would be "a pretty big leap," as reported in EE Times:

"We do have an open-source management team that is investigating this," said Cassidy Gentle, a senior RIM software developer. "I would expect some of our Eclipse or Mobile Tools for Java could be made available on an open-source basis, but as for our APIs or other software--that's a pretty big leap," Gentle said.

It's perhaps not surprising that RIM would stick to its proprietary guns while they're still firing, but it is news that the company has an open-source management team. What does it do?

Meanwhile, other executives, including CNET blogger Dave Rosenberg, see open source playing a key role in the mobile market. Part of the reason lies in the ready-made community: every developer has a phone and, as is demonstrated by Funambol's success in mobile, many are willing to participate:

• Active Funambol installations growing more than 50 percent year-over-year, and downloads have grown 30 percent since the start of 2008 alone;
• Three million downloads, with huge uptake in China after translating the Funambol Forge into Chinese;
• 1,500 new developers registered in the last month alone

Funambol has been accelerating its community efforts with a cool new localization program called Lion Sniper. It's a way to make Funambol's mobile-sync software even more relevant for disparate geographies.

RIM, of course, has only a few models, and Apple has even fewer. Do these companies need open source to power their businesses? Perhaps not. But most of the world doesn't use a BlackBerry or iPhone, which leaves plenty of room for Google, Funambol, and others to make mobile fertile ground for open source.

[m1nime]

Actually, RIM is a prolific user of open source:
- they create their own in-house linux distros which runs all of their data centres
- they use JBoss extensively to host their carrier activation portals for all BBs worldwide
- they use lots of java open source api's

With Android and iPhone taking big chunks of $ out of RIMs pocket, how long before most platforms become open? As one of your previous articles showed, who can compete with the distributed and powerful communities that support these projects? The Android power and success will show both Apple and RIM that to compete, they will have to leverage the community, or spend billions on R&D alone, while Google picks them off one by one.

[Mark_Anderson]

One word: Symbian.

[red.kryptonite]

I think your comment about Apple should be checked. As with OS X on the Mac the OS X version on the iPhone has quite a bit of OSS software on it. As you've probably not jailbroken an iPhone to look under the hood .. I have. With the exception of the GUI your assertion doesn't hold much water.

And since when did you Cnet pundits care about what's open source and what's not. I notice you didn't mention Windows Mobile in your article. Does this mean that Microsoft will go down the tubes and have no options because they have always and probably always will be proprietary? :D

[odubtaig]

"since when did you Cnet pundits care about what's open source and what's not"

Indeed, on a blog titled "The Open Road", subtitled "The Business and Politics of Open Source", why would open source ever be brought up?

Thanks for the laugh.