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BARCELONA, Spain – It’s not often operators get the cheerleader treatment from mobile phone makers, but Jim Basille of Research In Motion Ltd. was certainly waving his pom-poms for them this week during his keynote at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain.
Balsillie spent his time putting forward ideas for how can operators and consumer electronics makers might better be able to work together, as well as discussing his thoughts on the role of the operator going forward.
“There is a role,” said Balsillie, adding that it could be best achieved through “constructive alignment,” and “creating transformative experiences for consumers and sustained prosperity for the carriers.”
We’re not entirely sure what that means in English (we don’t have a Canadian dictionary handy) but more tangible observation from the BlackBerry maker was that tablets would represent “an enormous opportunity for prosperity” when it comes to carriers, as would mobile payments. And, surprise surprise, RIM can help carriers with both.
4G, said Balsillie, was really making the tablet platform highly attractive, and if RIM could just help carriers cash in on apps too, the world of big business would be at rights with itself. RIM, said Basille, was the only company that works with carriers this closely, and wants to enable carrier billing for in-app purchases in BlackBerry App World, because apparently it will send revenues skyrocketing.
“I believe the carrier will be a digital media platform,” said Balsillie, bigging up the new billing and advertising relationship he hopes to promote.
BlackBerry’s famous BBM platform will also be able to generate new revenue for carriers, said the Canadian CEO, by allowing users to gift each other top-up minutes or other virtual goods – with operators taking a healthy cut of course.
Near-field communications may be another way of squeezing more spare change out of consumers, implied Balsillie, noting that “many if not most BlackBerry devices will have NFC in them” by the end of this year.
But while cozying up to carriers and closing in on consumers seemed top of the agenda, Balsillie ironically still found it appropriate to push the message of “openness.”
“Open is the core message,” he confided, “open web tools is key.” Well, that and secure Bluetooth sharing, apparently.
Either way, RIM obviously does not see itself going forward alone, and has clearly chosen its bedmate in the future of mobile. Let’s see if customers are as keen as Balsillie about the idea.
