New RIM For Your Ride In The Near Future - The UpStream

Anyone living in the industrialized world is familiar with the BlackBerry smart phones that have been popular since smart phones existed. Competitors like Apple, Nokia, Google, Palm, and Microsoft has made expansion in the smart phone market quite difficult and costly. This is why the Canadian based Research In Motion is looking to expand into the automotive market. They are attempting to acquire QNX, a Canadian based company that was purchased by Harmon International in 2004 who developed the Neutrino operating system that is currently used in other industries such as telecommunications, medical, defense and aerospace markets. Mike Lazaridis, RIM's co-chief executive said,

RIM is excited about the planned acquisition of QNX and we look forward to ongoing collaboration between Harman, QNX and RIM to further integrate and enhance the user experience between smart phones and in-vehicle audio and infotainment systems.

With more streamlined in-car infotainment systems RIM expects the auto industry to experience some much needed growth and appears to be positioning itself to take advantage of that. Currently the only real competitor in the U.S. auto market is Microsoft with its Microsoft Auto operating system. Some forced competition in regards to auto infotainment could be the little kick start the auto industry needs to attract much needed buyers.