Feisty Blackberry Fights iPhone With Microsoft, Myspace, Tivo Partnerships

Research in Motion, the company behind the ubiquitous RIM, has unveiled a slew of partnerships with some of the biggest names in the web-o-sphere to counteract the threat of Apple's iPhone platform.

In what appears to be a direct response to Apple's encroachment of its own "business" turf, Blackberry will collaborate with Myspace to bring the world's largest Social Networking Website to Blackberry users through what RIM's CEO calls a "very special relationship".

Blackberry's Facebook App, from Myspace's rival, is said to have been downloaded 2.5 million times  over the last year although that pales in comparison with what Apple managed to do with its recently launched Apps Store

At the end of July 2008, Facebook's iPhone App had one million users and ranked 6th amongst the most popular free applications on Apple's App store.

RIM has also unveiled other consumer-oriented applications like a TiVO one for recording TV programmes, better Microsoft Live Search integration as well as a tighter integration with Google Applications.

Research carried out by Market Analyst eMarketer shows that up to 800 million people will access social networks through their cellphone by 2012, a ten fold increase in less than five years.