Wonders of the world

An announcement by officials in Saudi Arabia about “positive developments” means that BlackBerry service will continue uninterrupted in that country. While Research In Motion has yet to comment, it would appear that there’s a deal in the works allowing some kind of official access to messages.

Pardon me for thinking this thought, but I wonder how much of this issue has been about brinksmanship on the part of the Saudi government. This whole imbroglio is reminiscent of the patent battle in the U.S. with its threat of an injunction against RIM in 2006.

The timing of the Saudi move was intriguing. Momentum in the market had been moving to Apple but RIM was making a major announcement that turned out to be the new Torch. Just about the same time, Saudi demands suddenly ramped up. Was that just happenstance? Or something more Machiavellian?

We’ll never know for sure, of course, and I’ve never been much of a conspiracy theorist, but it does set a fellow to wondering.