Last week we published a story on ITWorldCanada.com about RIM's latest dual-mode device and as usual, RIM was pretty silent about it, other than issuing a press release on the subject. All that changed, however, once our reporter talked to industry analysts who raised some concerns about the security of the 8820.
I got a phone call a few days later from RIM's PR person, who wanted to talk about some conerns about the story. He said they didn't have a problem with the writer or the way the story was written, but with the comments of the analysts. There was a pregnant pause where the PR person seemed to assume I was going to offer a retraction or some sort, and I explained that there was nothing I could do about fair comments made by people who tend to know what they're talking about. He asked if, should RIM provide a source, we could do a followup. Of course we would, and that's what we published this morning.
This is just a reminder that every maker of a mobile device has to be prepared to face much greater scrutiny around security when it launches a new product, and that even if you're as successful as RIM it's worth opening up once and a while on the subject.