BlackBerry maker RIM (Research in Motion) and Microsoft are both gearing up to reach broader audiences with their respective products this year. RIM just hours ago officially introduced its newest smartphone, the BlackBerry Bold. And Microsoft is investing a good amount in its Live services, from mail to maps. But rather than live entirely separate lives parallel to one another in the Web’s most popular and most enduring communications medium, email, the two have chosen to partner up.
Microsoft purports that this deal will enable BlackBerry users “an enhanced level of integration" by employing the benefits of “push” technology as well as online sync to manage both inbox and outbox activities to bring convenient near-real-time communications to a potential user pool of some 250 million existing Live Hotmail users.
As for activity on the Live Messenger side, BlackBerry users will be given the option take part in standard one-on-one chat sessions as well as group discussions, plus additional features like the ability to sent and receive pictures and files right on their handsets.