BlackBerry Users to Gain Mobile Access to Google Talk and Google Local
New Mobile Services Will Enable BlackBerry users to Stay Connected with Google Talk instant messaging and Google Local information and maps — Waterloo, Ontario - Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) …
Context & Ripple Effects
Research In Motion is announcing at CES-adjacent news cycle pace that its flagship device line will carry services built outside its own walls: Google Talk instant messaging and Google Local information and maps, per the company's own release out of Waterloo, Ontario. The pickup by Reuters alongside the vendor announcement shows the story read as industry news, not a product footnote — a closed, email-centric platform formally opening its client to a rival ecosystem's consumer services.
First-order effects
- BlackBerry users gain direct mobile access to Google Talk IM and Google Local search and maps on the device, extending BlackBerry beyond its enterprise-email core toward consumer internet services.
- Google gains distribution for Talk and Local on RIM's installed hardware base without building its own phone — placement on someone else's platform becomes the delivery mechanism.
Second-order effects
- Other instant-messaging and local-search providers now have a template to negotiate for carrier and handset placement, pressuring carriers whose portal strategies depend on owning the subscriber's default services.
- RIM sets a precedent that its device software stack accepts third-party clients, which competitors courting the same prosumer buyer must match or explain away.
Third-order effects
- If device makers keep licensing shelf space to internet-service brands, the smartphone consolidates into a general access terminal for web services, weakening the carrier-portal model that defined pre-2006 mobile data.
- For Google specifically, the deal points toward a distribution strategy of being preinstalled across many manufacturers' hardware rather than controlling a single device — a structural bet on service ubiquity over platform ownership.
The trend: Mobile device makers are shifting from closed, single-purpose platforms toward open clients that host third-party internet services, with Google among the first to buy distribution on rivals' hardware.