There is no dearth of news articles and op-eds that continue to dismiss Research in Motion (RIMM) as a dead company that needs to be eulogized every hour of every day. While that is probably true, and the end of the company may not be too far away, there are certain things that RIM can still do in order to protect the interests of its investors. This includes selling the company and its properties as soon as possible, something that is unpalatable to those who run the company. BlackBerry’s corporate security services, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and its native email application need to be opened up for Google’s (GOOG) Android OS, Apple’s (AAPL) iOS, and Microsoft’s (MSFT)Windows Phone 7 and 8 devices.

If RIM decides to open these 3 important applications to the dominant operation systems, for a fee of course, it could manage to recover some money. Moreover, it may give the company some time to breathe and think about its next moves. Of the three applications that I just mentioned, I am particularly interested in BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), as it is a solution that is desperately needed by iPhone and Android phone users. The closest that could come to BBM on other platforms is Whatsapp, which works just fine. While I say that it works “just fine”, it does lack many social features- a personal profile, and certain file sharing options, that BBM comes with.

Whatsapp is certainly better than text messaging, or the stripped down and minimalist iMessage, which can only be used by iPhone users.To continue reading, click here.