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Or is that the writing on the wall. RIM has an OS platform that drastically needs to modernize. From a towering duct-taped-up collection Java apps perched on a collection of a radio stacks, to a bulletproof embedded OS kernel. We think this bodes well. Go RIM.

From Alec Saunders:

News is out this morning that Harman International has agreed to sell it’s QNX Software Systems division to Research In Motion. TechCrunch speculates that this might mean tighter integration with automobiles, since Harman acquired QNX in order to provide software to its automotive customer base. RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis himself hypes up the automotive possibilities in the release.

I’m not buying it.

For those who don’t know QNX, it’s a micro-kernel based operating system with a sophisticated graphical user interface, a modern POSIX-based tool-chain, and a fully distributable architecture. In layman’s terms, that means it’s more stable than LINUX, runs in less memory than any of LINUX, OS X, or Windows – even the embedded versions, pretty to look at for users, and easy to develop software for using skills that are relatively common in the industry. Oh, and did I mention that it sports a touch screen UI, and a fully integrated flash development environment?

And if some useful automotive applications come along for the ride, we guess that’s fine too.

LINK: RIM bought QNX because of Apple