BlackBerry maker in "confidential" hunt for iPhone developers

[AppleInsider]

As much as Research in Motion is keen to maintain its marketshare edge against Apple, a new internal job listing suggests the BlackBerry creator is willing to jump the fence and write applications for the iPhone.

People familiar with the listing say the Waterloo, Canada-based smartphone designer is distributing the notice only within the company and is keeping most details hidden even to those aware of the posting.

"As part of a newly-created team, you’ll influence the development and design of BlackBerry software," the listing reads. "This is a very confidential brand new team and a senior position within RIM so I can't provide too many details. I guess you can figure out what it might be about though."

Among the requirements are a very strong emphasis on existing experience with Mac development, including programming in both Cocoa and Objective C as well as user interface design.

Web experience with Javascript, XML, and other functions is also essential. Experiences with developing for the Mac's Sync Services feature and interfacing with Bluetooth and USB devices are both considered assets, according to the company.

The level of secrecy is unusual for RIM, which has seen repeated leaks of its 3G-capable BlackBerry plans as well as brief discussion by company executives of its near-term releases. Some as yet unverified reports have alluded to a touchscreen BlackBerry that would directly compete with Apple's handset.

What RIM's intentions are for the new development team, and any iPhone applications that may result, is unclear. While often protective of the BlackBerry's distinctive "push" service that delivers e-mail in real time, the company has allowed rival phone builders such as Samsung to access its mail system and integrate its SureType input method into their software.

Still, any development for the Apple platform would represent an unusual move for the Canadian firm, which analysts have said may lose marketshare in the US once native third-party applications and Exchange data support allow business users to rely on the iPhone.

RIM would stand as just one of hundreds of high profile firms who've recently signed on to develop applications for the touch-screen handset. During a recent conference call with analysts and members of the media, Apple said that over a third of companies in the Fortune 500, and over 400 higher education institutions, have applied for iPhone developer status since last month.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[Maury Markowitz]

Umm, maybe this is just an effort to make a better BB sync system than the shameful one they offer now?

[Kasper]

Originally Posted by Maury Markowitz

Umm, maybe this is just an effort to make a better BB sync system than the shameful one they offer now?

According to our source, this has to do w/ the iPhone SDK...

Best,

K

[EagerDragon]

Probably RIM senior management want to be cool, so they want their RIM software ported to the iPhone, so their management can use an iPhone and still be productive. LOL

Kidding.

[BRussell]

I really don't get it. What could be in it for RiM to make iPhone apps?

[melgross]

I wonder if this is such a good idea for them. It would be ratifying their competition.

The market would react by thinking it could be that RIM is less confident about the future for their platform.

Jokes aside, that may not be true, though it could be seen that way.

[monstrosity]

Probably just a way for RIM to keep an eye on the competition, keep your enemies closer n all that.

It's impossible to copy something you know nothing about, ask msft's Mac business unit

[ouragan]

Experiences with developing for the Mac's Sync Services feature and interfacing with Bluetooth and USB devices are both considered assets, according to the company.

It is quite possible that RIM is seeking to develop a Mac Sync feature in a third generation Blackberry, and not iPhone software. It may be helped by the iPhone development tools for Mac OS X.

[Rot'nApple]

Originally Posted by BRussell

I really don't get it. What could be in it for RiM to make iPhone apps?

Enterprise iPhone customers, perhaps...

[GQB]

Sounds to me like they're staffing for Mac development (probably sync and dev tools) more tha iPhone apps.

"Among the requirements are a very strong emphasis on existing experience with Mac development, including programming in both Cocoa and Objective C as well as user interface design."

[BuzDots]

Originally Posted by melgross

I wonder if this is such a good idea for them. It would be ratifying their competition.

The market would react by thinking it could be that RIM is less confident about the future for their platform.

Jokes aside, that may not be true, though it could be seen that way.

I think you are dead on. Ten years down the road folks may not even remember what a BB was - the technology is good but they MUST look into the future.

[MyopiaRocks]

...odd that my first posting to appleinsider is related to blackberries... Hi everyone.

Anyway, RIM has an existing infrastructure to support ("pushing" everyone's email through their site in Canada) - they'll write an app so that users can have their blackberry mail pushed to their iPhones or iPod Touches.

In theory, RIM might lose sales on hardware, but they'd continue to receive revenue from the use of their infrastructure. I'd imagine the cost of maintaining an account with blackberry, even if accessed from an iPhone/iPod Touch, would still come with ongoing subscription charges.

Since RIM's reason for being isn't reliant upon a specific piece of hardware this wouldn't be a dramatic change, although it's a fair question whether/why anyone with the iPhone/iPod Touch's functionality would want to bother paying more for blackberry-mail (existing users? Idiots?).

[Feynman]

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

[David Stevenson]

Another possible use for this team is in expanding BB app support to include the touchscreen interface on future BBs: knowing what the iPhone SDK offers could give them a leg up in extending their own SDK.

[Sevenfeet]

I thought this was a bit strange too, but in thinking about it further, it may not be as farfetched as you think.

Why do people buy Blackberries? The Email. Although there are lots of other Blackberry apps, the Email is what defines the platform and that's why people love their Crackberries. That's what they are paying for and that's why companies like using them.

Does RIM make any real money off selling phones? Probably not. For all the R&D time it takes to design and market a handset, most of this stuff is deeply discounted to companies and cell phone providers. RIM most likely makes its money like most people do in the cell phone business...over time. Your cell phone bill and data plan with RIM is what keeps the proverbial "lights on" in Canada.

So it's the service that really matters. Apple sells a cool product, but isn't in the data/email business. What if you could get your Blackberry mail and a few more features on that iPhone you've been drooling over? Would you be willing to pay a little more to get an iPhone and Blackberry mail in one device? Would your employer be more inclined to support iPhone if your iPhone could access the Blackberry email infrastructure they already support?

And then there are a few market realities. Apple sells cool and people like it. Blackberries are cool, but in a different way...problem is that their "cool" phase ended when iPhones appeared. The RIM API is pretty good and has lots of support but MacOS X on the iPhone has lots of upside and got a boatload of developers almost overnight. Virtually the entire Mac development community can easily be iPhone developers...far easier than Windows developers doing Windows Mobile 5/6 or Blackberry.

Putting Blackberry email on the iPhone for an additional cost to the user could solve a lot of problems for RIM. They still can get high margin revenue from people who might defect from their hardware. They keep Microsoft at bay, a company who has no problem helping Apple out getting Exchange push mail working since its a direct RIM competitor. And although Blackberry hard keyboards are a definite advantage to most frequent emailers, does anyone really think that Apple will make one style of iPhone forever? Neither does RIM.

[Tulkas]

RIM is just looking to fill some of the vast amounts of office space they have in Waterloo. In the neighbourhood they are in, they have bought, leased or subleased space in almost all of the buildings. They have paid companies to give up their leases, build new buildings, offered to build companies office space miles away to encourage them to give up their space. Pretty much every building here has their name on it. They moved into our building a year or so ago and took over space we had in a building across the parking lot. (my pet peeve is the RIM employees have since decided our parking lot is more convenient for them and take all the spaces). Yet, for all of this, they seem to have an over abundance of office space and yet keep building and buying more space.

j/k

I think it is great they are hiring iPhone developers. RIM has some talented developers and some great products. There is room enough for both Apple and RIM to do well in this space, so why not benefit regardless of the device the users buy. This is a smart move. If I see any RIM people using iPhones at either of the Tim's on Phillip, I will try to remember to ask them if they are on the 'new team'. I was out for drinks last year and one of our guys from the US had his iPhone with him. The table of RIM staffers at the other table seemed quite interested in it when he was showing it to us.

[mh71]

Sounds like the conumdrum that Apple went through a couple of years ago. Are they a hardware company, or are they a software company? When Jobs came back, he decided they were a hardware company and axed their "mac cloning" program. They are still a hardware company, which means they won't be licensing OSX any time soon.

Is RIM a hardware company or a services provider? If they make any meaningful amount of money off of hardwares sales, then maybe they are. I have no idea, but you have to think they do make some money off of sales. Or are they a services provider, and only make the hardware as a platform for delivery of email that would not be available otherwise.

My impression is that the latter is somewhat true. The licensing of their input method that the article mentions leads one to believe that they view themselves as more of a services provider. Of course, maybe RIM just hasn't figured this out yet.

So, for a services provider, having a RIM client on the iPhone makes perfect sense. For minimal costs to RIM, Apple hosts and distributes their client (for free even) and RIM continues charge for BES just the same as it does today. The only thing that has changed in the whole food chain is the physical device that the email is viewed on. There is also a possibility for people who would not normally want a Blackberry phone to sign up for BES on an iPhone just because it suddenly became available to them.

With cooperation from Apple, they may even be able to integrate their input method in touch format - no idea how that would work out. And they could develop remote services for wiping and locking and such. Apple would find this appealing as another avenue to sell their hardware and their revenue sharing schemes.

[coolfactor]

Originally Posted by David Stevenson

Another possible use for this team is in expanding BB app support to include the touchscreen interface on future BBs: knowing what the iPhone SDK offers could give them a leg up in extending their own SDK.

Bingo. This is the most logical explanation. They need to learn from the iPhone in order to compete with it.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by coolfactor

Bingo. This is the most logical explanation. They need to learn from the iPhone in order to compete with it.

I don't know about that. It seems farfetched.

Apple isn't the only one with such a product. Touchscreens have been around for decades. Multitouch screens are available from several manufacturers. RIM doesn't need OS X iPhone developers to understand it.

[quinney]

Originally Posted by MyopiaRocks

...odd that my first posting to appleinsider is related to blackberries... Hi everyone.

Anyway, RIM has an existing infrastructure to support ("pushing" everyone's email through their site in Canada) - they'll write an app so that users can have their blackberry mail pushed to their iPhones or iPod Touches.

In theory, RIM might lose sales on hardware, but they'd continue to receive revenue from the use of their infrastructure. I'd imagine the cost of maintaining an account with blackberry, even if accessed from an iPhone/iPod Touch, would still come with ongoing subscription charges.

Since RIM's reason for being isn't reliant upon a specific piece of hardware this wouldn't be a dramatic change, although it's a fair question whether/why anyone with the iPhone/iPod Touch's functionality would want to bother paying more for blackberry-mail (existing users? Idiots?).

Originally Posted by Sevenfeet

I thought this was a bit strange too, but in thinking about it further, it may not be as farfetched as you think.

Why do people buy Blackberries? The Email. Although there are lots of other Blackberry apps, the Email is what defines the platform and that's why people love their Crackberries. That's what they are paying for and that's why companies like using them.

Does RIM make any real money off selling phones? Probably not. For all the R&D time it takes to design and market a handset, most of this stuff is deeply discounted to companies and cell phone providers. RIM most likely makes its money like most people do in the cell phone business...over time. Your cell phone bill and data plan with RIM is what keeps the proverbial "lights on" in Canada.

So it's the service that really matters. Apple sells a cool product, but isn't in the data/email business. What if you could get your Blackberry mail and a few more features on that iPhone you've been drooling over? Would you be willing to pay a little more to get an iPhone and Blackberry mail in one device? Would your employer be more inclined to support iPhone if your iPhone could access the Blackberry email infrastructure they already support?

And then there are a few market realities. Apple sells cool and people like it. Blackberries are cool, but in a different way...problem is that their "cool" phase ended when iPhones appeared. The RIM API is pretty good and has lots of support but MacOS X on the iPhone has lots of upside and got a boatload of developers almost overnight. Virtually the entire Mac development community can easily be iPhone developers...far easier than Windows developers doing Windows Mobile 5/6 or Blackberry.

Putting Blackberry email on the iPhone for an additional cost to the user could solve a lot of problems for RIM. They still can get high margin revenue from people who might defect from their hardware. They keep Microsoft at bay, a company who has no problem helping Apple out getting Exchange push mail working since its a direct RIM competitor. And although Blackberry hard keyboards are a definite advantage to most frequent emailers, does anyone really think that Apple will make one style of iPhone forever? Neither does RIM.

Thank you for your excellent first posts. I think you have it right.
It will remove a big obstacle from corporate/government adoption of the iPhone
if it can use RIM's email service. It does seem like a capitulation by RIM on the
hardware side. Under the circumstances, I don't mind having RIM as Apple's
partner as much as Microsoft for push email.

[Dorotea]

Are we sure that don't want to write a virus for the iPhone?

[DaveyJJ]

I Googled the phrase "As part of a newly-created team, you’ll influence the development and design of BlackBerry software" and came up with the following job listing that seems to match the one being refered to.

http://www.redcanary.ca/view/software-developer72

It has alot more requirements to the job though that may point away from a purely Mac-focused position, e.e., Windows, C or C++ experience, Visual Studio etc etc ... except for what the blogger on that site seems to mention in her comments re: "If you’re a pro at developing software for MAC’s then this it the position for you. It’s a new development team at RIM, so you’re getting in a the very early stages when joining this team." (emphasis mine).

This phrase "This is a very confidential brand new team and a senior position within RIM so I can't provide too many details. I guess you can figure out what it might be about though." isn't in the posting but maybe thats a separate communication within RIM?

Now that the iPhone is coming to Canada seems likely that they might consider making software for it. It'd be like MS in a way ... their software on whatever hardware. They'll make $ without having to do the hardware part, as one previous poster said.

I'd say real.

[Solar]

Originally Posted by coolfactor

Bingo. This is the most logical explanation. They need to learn from the iPhone in order to compete with it.

Have you used the blackberry sdk? It would be like a go cart manufacturer, trying to learn from Porsche.

That's probably being a bit too hard on RIM, but honestly I don't think they can compete with Apple. Getting BES up and running on the iPhone makes far more sense than trying to come up with the iPhone killer. They'd just be throwing money away. I have an 8830, and as a phone/email gadget it's perfect, as a media player it's a joke. I think RIM would be smart to move away from the consumer/multimedia phones and just stick with what they're good at, rock solid enterprise class phone/email. I think partnering with apple for the consumer/media phone market makes a lot of sense.

iPhone + BES =

RIM vs iPhone =

If i could get a 3G iPhone with BES on Sprint, I'd get it today. (Stupid corporate account.)

[mark2005]

Originally Posted by mh71

Sounds like the conumdrum that Apple went through a couple of years ago. Are they a hardware company, or are they a software company? ...

Is RIM a hardware company or a services provider?

Agreed that RIM needs to become clear about this, especially if the iPhone starts to eat into BB handest sales. It's obvious that one of RIM's crown jewels is its email service, driving BES sales, monthly service fees, and even handset sales. But it's not so obvious that the BB handsets are also part of their crown jewels. Two immediate questions I ask in determining "crown jewels" (there's probably many more questions one could ask):

1. How much profit does RIM make from handset sales? (I don't know the answer to this one at all; anyone know?)
2. How much innovation does RIM bring to handsets? RIM did innovate with the keyboard and wheel, but I haven't really seen anything new on its handsets in a long time. Getting the handset smaller is good, but doesn't really strike me as major innovation.

[aegisdesign]

A lot of conspiracy theories and only a few people hitting the target IMHO.

RIM ship Blackberry Connect client software for most platforms including Symbian, Windows and even Palm. Up springs a new platform - Apple iPhone - that does moderately well at least in the USA where RIM is also more popular than other locales. That alone would make enough sense to port their app but then Apple ties up with Microsoft and their Exchange solution.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise porting Blackberry Connect to the iPhone, like they've done with other platforms already, is important to keeping their foot in the door in the enterprise.

So, we'll have a choice of two proprietary, non-standard 'enterprise' solutions soon on the iPhone and still Apple does almost nothing to create a standards based alternative. They've most of the pieces already but don't seem to have the urge to push them together into a cohesive service offering.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

A lot of conspiracy theories and only a few people hitting the target IMHO.

RIM ship Blackberry Connect client software for most platforms including Symbian, Windows and even Palm. Up springs a new platform - Apple iPhone - that does moderately well at least in the USA where RIM is also more popular than other locales. That alone would make enough sense to port their app but then Apple ties up with Microsoft and their Exchange solution.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise porting Blackberry Connect to the iPhone, like they've done with other platforms already, is important to keeping their foot in the door in the enterprise.

So, we'll have a choice of two proprietary, non-standard 'enterprise' solutions soon on the iPhone and still Apple does almost nothing to create a standards based alternative. They've most of the pieces already but don't seem to have the urge to push them together into a cohesive service offering.

That's about it.

[geraldoh1]

@aegeisdesign
@melgross

I have to agree. I assumess Blackberry Connect is part of RIM's core business. It makes the most sense, and is a pretty logical compettive response to Apple licensing ActiveSync. RIM already has BB Connect running on a few other platforms that (apparently) have peanuts for market share compared to the iPhone. Now, I'd love to see this happen -- I like my BIS service on my chunky BB 8700c -- though I use my iPhone for everything else - including my voice plan.

Also, if I remember correctly, just running ActiveSync on your mobile device (like an iPhone) doesn't necessarily mean you automatically have access to your corporate email. Corporate IT would presumably still have to turn on the appropriate service on Exchange Server, and then make the appropriate exclusions in the firewall to let iPhone users through? But, I'm just guessing and not that knowledgable on ActiveSync... With Blackberry Connect and BIS, all I need is for the Exchange admins to have enabled Outlook webmail, which it nearly always is.

I know some will say "...just ask IT to turn it on..." Well, to that I say nothing in Enterprise IT is ever that easy -- esp. for us lowly peons! :-)

I would gladly pay (or more correctly expense) the $30-50 monthly charge for Blackberry Connect on the iPhone if it meant I could just carry my iPhone -- and leave the BB at home. I'd like to be able to sync calendars as well, but I can live with just email.

Now, I have to take all this with a grain of salt... Back when I was a Treo 600 user, I remember the announcements that Blackberry Connect for Treo was completed, and being tested by T-Mobile in Germany. And then, nothing for TWO YEARS....! By that time, I'd given up on the platform, and was a BB user. When BB Connect for Treo for was announced, it was only for the Treo 650. By that time, I (and many people) had given up on the Treo.

[clyde_turkey]

I would suspect it's a port of the BlackBerry Application suite that RIM has been promising for WinMo 6.1. A self contained set of BlackBery Apps that are controlable from the BES. Or it could be full blown integration with the iPhone OS. Not having used the iPhone SDK, I'm not sure to what level Apple allows the developer to. If you were allowed to program at the transport level and manipulate the mail/calendar/address book apps then it's not far fetched to load a fully integrated BES/BIS enabled client on the iPhone. From a 10000 foot perspective it's fairly easy to establish the link to the iPhone from the BES/BIS. RIM did this with the BlackBerry Connect program.
I wouldn't think of this as a sign of defeat, more of a sign of looking for more revenue from a third party device. They weren't against it before with BlackBerry Connect and the mysterious BlackBerry Application suite (may be vaporware, but then again WinMo 6.1 is still slowly coming). Will it hurt their hardware business? Maybe from the consumer side, but there are still a bunch of dedicated security conscious Blackberry users that have no use for cameras and DMP capabilities.

just a guess.

[murphyweb]

What a load of rubbish gets talked on this forum! Some of you guys are on drugs, thank god that a couple of sensible posters joined in the conversation at the end.

Blackberry is a genius device/service and anyone who doubts that does not have a clue what they are talking about. There is no argument to be had here, the sales figures from corporate customers show this to be the case. All this rubbish about Blackberry doing this so they can learn from iPhone is absurd, I am sure the opposite is more true, Apple still have an awful lot to learn about this business and if they want to stat targeting the corporate market then Blackberry can certainly teach them a thing or two.

By putting the Blackberry Enterprise Server integration onto the iPhone Blackberry will indeed help drive new sales of iPhones, this would be something that could start to see the beginnings of the iPhone as a business class device. But RIM are not stupid, they are not in danger of losing their market share to iPhone really, not just yet anyway.

And before anyone points to stats showing iphone taking market share from RIM, they are flawed stats. They show the total smartphone market the biggest growth of which is consumer smartphones, the iphone to be exact. This is still not a market RIM plays in or really seems to want to play in, their market is the enterprise market and in that the iPhone is not even making a dent in RIM's market share. The pearl was not really an attempt at the consumer market but more at a fully featured Blackberry that us corporate users could still shove in our pockets and use as our regular phone too. It does have a great media player and a camera etc.. but it still cannot be classed as a consumer device but a device for business workers who like to have a small phone.

The best way for the iPhone to enter the corporate market is for the likes of Blackberry to write their email app for the iPhone, along with other business apps I could mention, one of which my company happens to develop, although while supporting both Win and BB we have no plans to develop for the iPhone as it is just not seen as a business class device, moves like this however may start to change that. Blackberry can see a way to generate new revenue from the iPhone as well as keeping market share once the iPhone starts to be taken seriously enough.

In the end everybody wins.

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by geraldoh1

RIM already has BB Connect running on a few other platforms that (apparently) have peanuts for market share compared to the iPhone.

You have that quite wrong. The worldwide smartphone market splits like this according to Canalys...

"In Q4 2007, Canalys estimates that Symbian had a 65% share of worldwide converged device shipments, ahead of Microsoft on 12% and RIM on 11%. By region, Symbian led in APAC and EMEA with 85% and 80% shares respectively, while in North America RIM was the clear leader on 42%, ahead of Apple on 27% and Microsoft at 21%."

http://www.canalys.com/pr/2008/r2008021.htm

Nokia and Sony Ericsson usually ship both ActiveSync (MS Exchange compatible) AND Blackberry Connect software with their Symbian based phones. Their share is far from being peanuts.

North America is a very unusual market and looks nothing like the rest of the world where Symbian dominates. Over half of all smartphone shipments worldwide are Nokias yet they barely register in the USA. The USA's smartphone market was half the size of Europe or Asia in 2007. In 2006 it was a quarter of the size. Traditionally the USA just hasn't picked up European phones, instead preferring Palm, Blackberry, Windows or now the iPhone - none of which we really bother with in Europe.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by GQB

Sounds to me like they're staffing for Mac development (probably sync and dev tools) more tha iPhone apps.

"Among the requirements are a very strong emphasis on existing experience with Mac development, including programming in both Cocoa and Objective C as well as user interface design."

Where do you think they will find Objective-C Programmers familiar with Cocoa? From the existing Mac platform.

They aren't saying, "We're looking for newbie Objective-C/Cocoa iPhone Platform SDK devs enthusiastic to learn the platforma nd write programs for us."

They won't touch anyone with less than 5 years of Cocoa and I guarantee you they want all the Enterprise ex-Openstep developers they can get their hands on.

[geraldoh1]

[QUOTE=aegisdesign;1245956]You have that quite wrong. The worldwide smartphone market splits like this according to Canalys... QUOTE]

I stand corrected - you're quite right - worldwide vs US market share are entirely different things.

However, if I'm RIM/whoever, I would still have to do some work on the Canalys numbers to figure out what kind of market I might have if I'm developing a software application -- since each manufacturer doesn't just have one single platform. For example, I noticed -- when I was shopping for phones (on the then-Cingular network) -- that the BB Connect software was available on something like a Nokia E-series phones and not on their N95, N80. Unclear to me whether that's a RIM, Nokia, or carrier decision. That may just be a peculiarity of the US market.

Either way, if it turns out RIM is developing a Blackberry Connect product for the iPhone, I'd be pretty happy -- though I type a _hell_ of a lot faster on a BB keyboard and with fewer mistakes than on my iPhone!

I'm just getting tired of carrying two phones around with me, though when forced with a choice, the BB stays in my car or hotel room. For better or worse, I'm quite invested in iPhone/iTunes.

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by geraldoh1

However, if I'm RIM/whoever, I would still have to do some work on the Canalys numbers to figure out what kind of market I might have if I'm developing a software application -- since each manufacturer doesn't just have one single platform. For example, I noticed -- when I was shopping for phones (on the then-Cingular network) -- that the BB Connect software was available on something like a Nokia E-series phones and not on their N95, N80. Unclear to me whether that's a RIM, Nokia, or carrier decision. That may just be a peculiarity of the US market.

It's an odd one but BBConnect on the Nokia phones seem to be limited to just the E series business phones. I don't see why technically it shouldn't be available on the N Series too.

Sony Ericsson shipped it on the P910 and later P series and the M600 and later M series touchscreen and keypad style phones. You also get ActiveSync support too. So, I can't see why if RIM can do it on different Symbian UIQ form factors, they can't also do it with Symbian S60 on Nokia's 'multimedia computers'.

[copywryter]

I wrote the job description that this is referring to. Here it is http://www.redcanary.ca/view/software-developer72.

Scroll down to the part where the job requirements mention 'syncing' and 'device communication protocols' and tell me you still think this has anything to do with the iPhone.

Trevor Stafford
Editor
Red Canary

[geraldoh1]

Originally Posted by copywryter

I wrote the job description that this is referring to. Here it is http://www.redcanary.ca/view/software-developer72.

Scroll down to the part where the job requirements mention 'syncing' and 'device communication protocols' and tell me you still think this has anything to do with the iPhone.

Trevor Stafford
Editor
Red Canary

The straightforward interpretation sounds like 'gotta understand how to code on a Mac'. :-)

[melgross]

Originally Posted by geraldoh1

The straightforward interpretation sounds like 'gotta understand how to code on a Mac'. :-)

No, it doesn't. It looks like RIM wants someone to do syncing software for the iPhone. That's all.