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The following statement has been specifically prepared
by Research In Motion Limited ("RIM") of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, for
use by our valued BlackBerry customers and our Wireless Solution Providers.
As noted in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's
June 1997 Report to Congress,
"It is important that one essential principle be understood:
It is not, and will not, be possible for any single entity or collective
enterprise to represent that it has achieved complete Year 2000 Compliance
and thus to guarantee its remediation efforts. The problem is simply too
complex for such a claim to have legitimacy."
With the foregoing as a backdrop, we can confirm the
following:
As to the BlackBerryTM Handheld, the associated cradle
and the BlackBerry Software, each component has been designed with Y2K
compliance in mind. From now through the year 2028, we have every reason
to believe that the BlackBerry Handheld, cradle and BlackBerry Software
will exhibit Year 2000 compliance as that term is defined by the Standards
Council of Canada. The term "BlackBerry Software" includes the BlackBerry
Desktop Software, the BlackBerry Enterprise Software and the software
RIM has produced and that resides on the handheld. To the best of our
knowledge, based upon tests that we have performed and continue to perform
and upon our analysis of the code in our products, the BlackBerry Software
will function as expected in the year 2000 and will process the change
to the year 2000 properly. Additionally, the BlackBerry Software will
accept as data entry and will process correctly dates up to and including
the year 2028. As a result of limitations in third party software with
which BlackBerry is designed to perform, we cannot make any statements
as to performance in the years 2029 and beyond. We are, however, continuing
to track improvements in such third party software so that when the year
2028 limitation is removed, we will be able to provide our customers with
the ability to use the BlackBerry Solution to record dates that are beyond
that year.
Of course, because our products are dependent upon functions
on wireless data networks that we neither own nor control, upon the Internet,
and upon third party software and systems, including Microsoft Exchange
Server and Microsoft Outlook, we cannot make any representation as to
whether the networks upon which our products function, or the Internet
or third party software or systems will function is such a manner so as
to ensure that the year 2000 date change is performed correctly, or that
date changes up to and including the year 2028 will also be processed
correctly. To the extent that these third party providers provide RIM
with statements concerning the Y2K functionality of their products, we
will be happy to make such statements available as well. It also should
be noted that our Software Developer's Kit ("SDK") does not restrict what
a creative designer can or will do in the development of applications
for our products. As such, we make no statement as to whether a particular
application designed with our SDK is or is not Y2K compliant.
Finally, we are prepared to treat as a warranty claim
under RIM's limited warranty any problems BlackBerry customers experience
in the highly unlikely event an error occurs in the BlackBerry handheld
or in the BlackBerry Software relating to the transition from 1999 to
the year 2000 ("Y2K Error") during the warranty period, as long as such
problems are not related solely to the known condition that the BlackBerry
handheld and the BlackBerry Software will not necessarily process date
information properly in the year 2029 and thereafter. We are committed
to resolving Y2K Errors as expeditiously as possible should they arise
by replacing or "repairing" any code, or repairing or replacing hardware
that is causing such problems. Repair and/or replacement of affected BlackBerry
components shall be the sole remedy available to the end-users of BlackBerry
in the event of a Y2K Error.
This statement does not alter in any way the limited
warranty provided to end-users of BlackBerry.
Should you desire further clarification of this statement
or have technical questions concerning the functioning of our products
during the year 2000, please contact our Year 2000 Group at Y2K@rim.com,
or if the questions are of a purely legal nature, please contact our counsel
for U.S. legal matters at Lawyer@rim.com.
The Year 2000 Compliance Criteria from the Standards Council of Canada
are set forth on the Council's website, www.scc.ca.
This statement is protected under Canadian, U.S. and
international copyright laws. Copyright 1998-99 Research In Motion Limited.
All rights reserved. The RIM Logo, BlackBerry, the BlackBerry logo and
the "envelope in motion" symbol are trademarks of Research In Motion Limited.
Research In Motion and RIM are registered with the United States Patent
and Trademark Office. Any trademarks of any other party mentioned herein
are the property of such party or used under license by that party.
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