BlackBerry 10 is currently set for a debut in early 2013, and today RIM CEO Thorsten Heins gave a bit of a status update on the platform while also shedding a bit of light on the whole licensing situation surrounding it. Speaking to Bloomberg, Heins said that BlackBerry 10 is currently in the final testing stage, and the exec is now carrying a BlackBerry 10-powered handset for his personal use. BlackBerry 10 is also nearly ready for licensing, and RIM is now thinking about how other companies could use it in their products. “QNX is already licensed across the automotive sector -- we could do that with BB10 if we chose to,” Heins explained. "The platform can be licensed."

Licensing BlackBerry 10 to other manufacturers is an idea that's been kicked around a couple of times in the past, but so far RIM has yet to shed much light on the matter. Now we know that the platform will soon be ready for licensing, and while today's news isn't necessarily confirmation that RIM will be licensing out its new OS, at least BlackBerry 10 is nearly ready for any prospective licensees. Now we have to wait and see which manufacturers (if any) might step up to give licensing BlackBerry 10 a try and if RIM will indeed agree to such a deal. Do you think we'll ever see BlackBerry 10 running on non-RIM hardware? If so, do you think you'd be interested in such a device or has your interest not yet been piqued by what we've seen of BlackBerry 10 so far?

Via Bloomberg