The Channel Wire

September 11, 2008

A day after Research In Motion (RIM) flipped the script and unveiled the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, its first ever clamshell, or flip form factor, smart phone, RIM took its consumer focus in a new direction revealing a host of partnerships to entice not only its suit-and-tie faithful, but consumers looking for total access from their mobile phones.

RIM said Thursday it would partner with the two big Ts: TiVo and Ticketmaster. The TiVo partnership will let BlackBerry loyalists schedule recordings of their favorite television programs from their handheld. If you'd rather watch the Red Sox clobber the Yankees live rather than record it from television, the new Ticketmaster paring gives BlackBerry users the ability to search, browse and buy tickets to concerns, sporting events and other live entertainment.

In a similar vein, RIM also announced another consumer-focused deal with Microsoft, which will integrate the software behemoth's Live Search functionality into BlackBerry's Web browser and BlackBerry Maps.

And building off a similar deal that BlackBerry made with social networking giant Facebook last year, which lets users upload photos to and manage their Facebook accounts from their device, BlackBerry has partnered up with Facebook rival MySpace to develop a mobile application that will lgive MySpacers access account features on the go.

Lastly, BlackBerry on Thursday detailed plans for Slacker Inc. to provide a free Slacker Personal Radio application exclusively for BlackBerry smart phones, which lets users listen to their favorite Slacker radio stations wherever they go -- even when not connected to a wireless network.

This latest round of application integration, along with the release of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, continues on BlackBerry's path to woo consumers and retail buyers to its portfolio of smart phones, which were once seen as high-dollar toys for corporate executives. Over the past 10 years, BlackBerry's evolution has seen the device grow from a business-centric brick-like pager to a consumer-focused multimedia device that ties together voice, video, data, music and a host of other features, but still packs a wallop when it comes to mobile email, calendars and contacts.