Prepared to spread its development wings beyond Canadian borders for the very first time, Ontario-based Research in Motion (RIM), which manufacturers the BlackBerry smartphone, has this week revealed it will soon open the doors on a new German research unit.
Research in Motion set to open new R&D BlackBerry facility in Germany. Image: edan/Flickr.
Set to be situated on the Ruhr University Bochum campus in the North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) region of the country, RIM has outlined that the research facility will initially carry 140 members of staff -- with a view to eventually expanding that number closer to 500.
“This new R&D facility will play a pivotal role in extending RIM’s leadership in the smartphone market as we continue to focus on delivering best-in-class solutions to our customers,” explained RIM founder and president Mike Lazaridis in an AFP report.
In terms of focus, the facility will direct its research efforts towards developing new software and hardware for the uber-popular and addictively versatile BlackBerry handset device, and will be bolstered by around $45 million dollars of first-year investment.
Since the first BlackBerry rolled into retail back in 1997, popularity connected to the trendy palm-sized smartphone has grown to include a subscription base of around 14 million people worldwide. According to RIM, that figure is expected to push forward by more than 2 million by the close of 2008’s third quarter.
Equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard and boasting various wireless information services such as real-time e-mail, text messaging, Internet faxing, and Web browsing, the wealth of convergent connectivity on offer through the BlackBerry line has seen the device labelled as the ‘CrackBerry’ by its thoroughly addicted users.
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