RIM gives carriers a direct role in payment services

Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of RIM, took thestage at MWC's keynote event today to announce a couple of thingsrelated to BlackBerry. He used “constructive alignment” toexplain the relationship between consumer electronics companies andcarriers. The alignment with carriers would be expressed through apayment services platform. Balsillie noted that after enablingcarrier billing, productivity and ARPU go way up.

Balsillie added that the BBM MobileGifting Platform uses exactly carrier payments to allow subsribers tobuy things for one another. And this concerns both pre-paid andpost-paid users. The size of this? Jim Balsillie mentioned that thereare 900 carriers across the globe, so the company aims big. “We look to plug our servicesinto their infrastructure,” he added.

And for RIM one major example of theconstructive alignment would be the BlackBerry PlayBook 4G,which was recently announced in two new flavors supporting LTE andHSPA+. The company's co-CEO summarized the main points ofdifferentiation for the 7-inch tablet – performance, open tools and corporate security.

Finally, Balsillie promised that most new BlackBerries willcome with NFC support by the end of the year. Great news as it seems that the standard will gain widesupport and mobile payments could become a realitysoon.

source: RIM