Thoughts on the BlackBerry Settlement

I know this is a bit of old news, and lots of people have already posted their thoughts about it, but I thought I'd write a comment or two about the recent BlackBerry settlement.

On Friday, BlackBerry settled with alleged patent holder NTP for $612 Million. Lots of journalists have written that this is akin to the two employees of NTP winning the lottery. I'm a fairly new user of the BlackBerry, but am coming to the acute understanding of why people refer to it as 'crack'-berry. It's a very addictive little toy.

I think it's good for BlackBerry to settle when they did. With an injunction that threatened to shut down service in the United States, a lot of BB's future business was on the line. Rather than go all in and let the courts decide its fate, BB took the safe route and simply settled with the company claiming to hold the patent to BB's core business model.

Is this right thing for BB to do? That remains debateable. In the short term, BB recently reported that it will fall below earnings estimates and new subscriber estimates. This stems from the fact that many users were wary of using BB because of the impending shutdown. As well, BB may end up raising prices for the devices to help recoup some of the cost of paying NTP. In the long-term, BB will most likely make up for these losses as the use of BB expands from its current base of 4mm users.

Many other providers such as Microsoft, PalmOne and others have taken advantage of the patent distraction that befell BB in recent month by marketing their mobile computing devices. However, in a coup for BB and as first reported in today's WSJ (subscription required), BB received it's biggest endorsement from the US government, when it told a court that many federal officials rely on BB for communication, and shutting down BB immediately would not be feasible.

It should be interesting to see what happens. As mentioned above, I've started using BB and I absolutely love it! In fact, you may see more frequent postings from me because I'll be able to access the Web more frequently!