The stand-off between BlackBerry maker RIM and the United Arab Emirates received a passionate reply from the company’s head. co-CEO Michael Lazaridis isn’t too happy about it. The Wall Street Journal quotes:
“This is about the Internet,” Mr. Lazaridis said. “Everything on the Internet is encrypted. This is not a BlackBerry-only issue. If they can’t deal with the Internet, they should shut it off.”
WSJ goes on to say, “In a fiery interview, the RIM co-founder said the devices are being unfairly singled out by foreign officials trying to score political points.”
Just as we said, the global pressure on RIM is a political issue, latching onto security concerns. It conceives a pretty large contradiction for RIM to manage, as backing down to these governments would go against the security measures BlackBerry is known for. Nevertheless, RIM has managed to make concessions for other governments, India being the most recent.
Yesterday John noted the significance RIM’s situation has on enterprises, and even the US government. As the mobile and computing industries helps drive cloud computing, the topic of security has become a course for political assertion.
The snowball gained speed thanks to RIM’s simultaneous launch of the BlackBerry Torch, the smart phone contender slated to bring RIM back into the fold. This has certainly added more heat to this pressure cooker, as RIM goes after global business users.
