Most phones are made in China. But not RIM’s BlackBerry. Look at the flip side and most people will see that it says “Made in Mexico.” The Washington Times has a fascinating report stating the reason why. Some users may already know, but RIM has purposely avoided having its products manufactured in China because of security concerns. Thorsten Hein, CEO of RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM), was quoted as saying:
Very frankly, that is why we are not building or manufacturing in China, as many of our competitors do, to really protect our [software] code and make sure the [intellectual property] of RIM is protected.
The problem about security and data monitoring isn’t just in China. In Indonesia, RIM also faced pressure from the Indonesian government in September last year. One of the demands was to have RIM “censor/filter negative internet content that violates Indonesia’s law, such as porn, gambling, and hate speech as it goes across its network.”
The Canadian company didn’t go along with the order. It did, however, announce its intention to set up a R&D center in Indonesia. We haven’t heard any updates on the filter requests for some time, and it seems RIM’s status in the country is still safe. At least for now.
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