Blackberry licensing

This isn't super-new news, but I figured that I'd touch on it breifly. RIM (they manufacture the Blackberry) or Blackberry, whatever you choose to call them, has opened up their software and allowed other manufacturers to license it. Why is this a big deal? Lots (a ridiculous amount) of corporations have invested a lot of money in the Blackberry software that sits on their e-mail servers. These corporations do not want to have to invest again in new software to keep up with the newest, coolest phones. Additionally, the devices manufactured by RIM aren't the prettiest things in the world (but currently they are the only devices that work with the expensive Blackberry software). The combination RIM Blackberry and phone devices are pretty akward, especially when compared to the Handspring/PalmOne Treo 600 device (by the way, PalmOne has signed a licensing deal for the Blackberry software, so we should see Treo's and other Plam devices capable of interfacing with Blackberry software by the end of clendar year 2004 at the latest).