Today’s mobile news roundup features RIM executives abandoning their sinking ship, Google’s Sergey Brin sporting the Google Glasses, Apple working on a 7.85-inch iPad and more.

RIM loses tops dogs amid market decline

According to a spokesman for Research in Motion, Senior Vice President Alan Brenner will be leaving the company after a transition period while Alistair Mitchell, vice president for the BlackBerry instant-messaging service, has already left.

The departure of the said execs is due to RIM’s fifth straight quarterly sales loss.  CEO Thorsten Heins said that they will be focusing more on their consumers since they failed to keep most from embracing iOS and Android devices.  Heins also stated that they are contemplating the possibility of selling the company, but clarified that it is not the top solution they are considering for the company.

Brener and Mitchell aren’t the only ones to leave RIM–chief technical officer David Yach and chief operating officer Jim Rowan also departed the company.  Surprisingly, Jim Balsillie, who recently stepped down as co-CEO, resigned from RIM’s board of directors last March 29.  And reports are saying that more senior execs will be cut loose from the company in the coming months.

Sergey Brin sports Google Glasses

Yesterday’s news featured Google’s unveiling of Project Glass – their heads-up display glasses that will allow users to pull up information from the web, capture photos, send messages, video chat and more just by saying what you want it to do.  And to prove that the project is real and not just a late April Fool’s hoax, Google co-founder Sergey Brin sported the augmented reality glasses at a charity event.  Though it’s still not functioning like the video they released depicted, it was just cool to see it out in the open.

In other Google news, CEO Larry Page, reiterated in an open letter that Android will remain an open platform amid the Motorola Mobility acquisition.

“[I]t’s important to reiterate that openness and investment by many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success,” Mr. Page wrote. “So we look forward to working with all of them in the future to deliver outstanding user experiences.”

“Android was built as an open ecosystem, and we have no plans to change that,” Page added.

Though they are firm on their stand that Android will remain open, Page’s open letter also hinted that the company plans on making and selling Google-branded mobile devices, which is a great idea, considering they’re acquiring their own device manufacturer.  But Page stated that they bought Motorola for the patents and nothing else.

Eleven arrested for Samsung AMOLED theft

In South Korea, 11 people were arrested for allegedly stealing Samsung’s AMOLED panels and selling it to Samsung Mobile Display’s rivals.

A report from YonHap News Agency stated that, “A 46-year-old former researcher at SMD, whose name was withheld, is suspected of receiving 190 million won (US$168,544) from the competitor in exchange for secret data on the so-called ‘small mask scanning’ technology involved in building active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays for large televisions. Until now, AMOLED displays have mostly been used for small smart devices.”

Apple working on smaller iPad

Apple is said to be working on a 7.85-inch iPad that would have the same resolution as the older iPads at 1024 x 768.  There’s reportedly multiple prototypes of varying sizes which would undergo testing and scrutiny as to whether or not people would actually see them.  It is possible that Apple would release a smaller, more affordable tablet but the late Steve Jobs didn’t like the idea of 7-inch tablets.  Oh wait, Jobs hated the stylus too, but Apple sells them for its entire mobile line-up.  Strange things happen when Jobs is no longer in charge.

In other Apple news, the company along with two of the six big publishing houses sued for e-book price control, are preparing to defend the agency model they agreed on last year.  According to unnamed sources, the two publishing houses preparing for the legal battle are Penguin and Macmillan while Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins are said to be settling.  As for Random House, the sixth publishing house, has an agreement with Apple and Amazon which lets the book publisher set prices for e- books and is not included in the inquiry.

Microsoft pays app developers

According to reports, Microsoft Corp. is paying app developers to create Windows Phone version of popular iOS/Android apps.  Microsoft is said to be offering $60,000-$600,000 depending on how complicated rewriting the codes for the app is.

Casey McGee, senior marketing manager for Windows Phone at Microsoft, confirmed that they gave incentives to the app developers they were eyeing but declined to coment on how much those incentives costs.

“We are by no means satisfied with our catalog,” McGee said. “That’s something we can get better at, and do better at, every day.”

Developers who already benefited from Microsoft’s offers are Foursquare, a mobile social network, and Cheezburger Network, a collection of humor and entertainment sites.