Research In Motion buys QNX

techcrunch.com

30 points·davidw··6 comments

I find it hard to believe this is just about automotive. QNX makes a very well regarded embedded OS, people I know who've worked with it rave about it.

So I can't help wondering if RIM has just bought their next-gen mobile OS, especially given the widely held view that RIM's current platform is ancient and creaky.

The odd part is that QNX has never really been interested in the mobile-os market. They have mainly been targeting the automotive, defense, industrial and medical verticals.

This post from a former QNX marketing VP appears to disagree with you: http://saunderslog.com/2010/04/09/rim-didnt-buy-qnx-for-its-...

"QNX has long been looking for a partner with whom to enter the mobile space. For example, almost 10 years ago I was the marketing VP at QNX for a short period of time. Even then, QNX CEO Dan Dodge thought that the real prize in the embedded OS market was the mobile handset."

> QNX makes a very well regarded embedded OS, people I know who've worked with it rave about it.

Seconded. In fact I don't know anyone who's used QNX that has anything but great things to say about it. QNX makes modern Linux systems look as old and stale as a proprietary Unix. It's tiny, really fast, and keeps the good stuff while fixing packaging, scheduling and graphics.

I wonder what this means for Cisco: QNX is the OS used in their high end routers (rebranded as 'IOS' because it has the same command shell and routing algos as their old shitty IOS).

The linked press release in that article is about QNX's home energy management system, not about any acquisition.

This one seems to be the real deal: http://press.rim.com/release.jsp?id=3766

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