After everyone in the world felt RIM needed a drastic shakeup, today they announced that Co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie are stepping down and named Thorsten Heins the new CEO of Research In Motion. Even though Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie are stepping down as CEO’s they will remain involved with the company.

This really comes as no surprise as the company’s BlackBerry Smartphones have been in trouble for months however, the question becomes is this too little too late.

Here is RIM’s Press Release

•    Board Acts on Recommendation of Co-CEOs to Implement Succession Plan
•    Mike Lazaridis Named Vice Chair of the Board
•    Jim Balsillie Remains a Director
•    Barbara Stymiest Named Independent Board Chair
•    Prem Watsa Named Independent Director
Waterloo, ON – The Board of Directors of BlackBerry® maker Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced that, acting on the recommendation of its Co-Chief Executive Officers to implement the succession plan they previously submitted to the Board, it has unanimously named Thorsten Heins as President and Chief Executive Officer.  Mr. Heins was also appointed to RIM’s Board. The Board acted after conducting its own due diligence. Both appointments are effective immediately.
Mike Lazaridis, former Co-Chair and Co-CEO, has become Vice Chair of RIM’s Board and Chair of the Board’s new Innovation Committee. As Vice Chair, he will work closely with Mr. Heins to offer strategic counsel, provide a smooth transition and continue to promote the BlackBerry brand worldwide.
Mr. Heins said he looks forward to continuing to work with Mr. Lazaridis, globally recognized as a technology pioneer. He said, “Mike created a whole new way of communicating and I look forward to continuing our close collaboration.”
On the transition to CEO by Mr. Heins, Mr. Lazaridis said, “There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership. Jim and I went to the Board and told them that we thought that time was now.  With BlackBerry 7 now out, PlayBook 2.0 shipping in February and BlackBerry 10 expected to ship later this year, the company is entering a new phase, and we felt it was time for a new leader to take it through that phase and beyond.  Jim, the Board and I all agreed that leader should be Thorsten Heins.”
Jim Balsillie remains a member of the Board. “I agree this is the right time to pass the baton to new leadership, and I have complete confidence in Thorsten, the management team and the company,” he said. “I remain a significant shareholder and a Director and, of course, they will have my full support.”
Mr. Lazaridis said that he decided to move from Co-Chair to Vice Chair of the Board in order to return the public’s focus to what is most important: “the great company we have built, its iconic products, global brand and its talented employees.”
Mr. Lazaridis added, “Thorsten has demonstrated throughout his tenure at RIM that he has the right mix of leadership, relevant industry experience and skills to take the company forward.  We have been impressed with his operational skills at both RIM and Siemens.  I am so confident in RIM’s future that I intend to purchase an additional $50 million of the company’s shares, as permitted, in the open market.”
Mr. Heins said he believes that RIM has tremendous potential.  He joined RIM from Siemens Communications Group in December 2007 as Senior Vice President for Hardware Engineering and became Chief Operating Officer for Product and Sales in August 2011.
“Mike and Jim took a bold step 18 months ago when RIM purchased QNX to shepherd the transformation of the BlackBerry platform for the next decade,” Mr. Heins said.  “We are more confident than ever that was the right path. It is Mike and Jim’s continued unwillingness to sacrifice long-term value for short-term gain which has made RIM the great company that it is today.  I share that philosophy and am very excited about the company’s future.”
Mr. Heins said that RIM has a strong foundation on which to build. “We have a strong balance sheet with approximately $1.5 billion in cash at the end of the last quarter and negligible debt.  We reported revenue of $5.2 billion in our last quarter, up 24% from the prior quarter, and a 35% year-to-year increase in the BlackBerry subscriber base, which is now over 75 million.”
Mr. Heins said, “BlackBerry 7 has been well received.  We are very excited about PlayBook 2.0 and BlackBerry 10.  The reception of our products at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was encouraging.”
He continued, “RIM earned its reputation by focusing relentlessly on the customer and delivering unique mobile communications solutions. We intend to build on this heritage to expand BlackBerry’s leadership position.”
Mr. Heins said that RIM has grown quickly. “As with any company that has grown as fast as we have, there have been inevitable growing pains,” he said. “We have learned from those challenges and, I believe, we have and will become a stronger company as a result.
“Going forward, we will continue to focus both on short-term and long-term growth, strategic planning, a customer- and market-based product approach, and flawless execution. We are in the process of recruiting a new Chief Marketing Officer to work closely with our product and sales teams to deliver the most compelling products and services.”
Barbara Stymiest, who formerly served as a member of Royal Bank of Canada’s Group Executive and has been a member of RIM’s Board since 2007, has been named the independent Board Chair. John Richardson, formerly Lead Director, will remain on the Board.  Prem Watsa, Chief Executive Officer of Fairfax Financial Holdings, also was named to the Board, expanding it to 11 members.
Speaking on behalf of the Board, Ms. Stymiest said:  “We believe that Thorsten is the right executive to succeed Mike and Jim.  He has 27 years of telecommunications experience, including four years at RIM in senior management positions.  As a Board, we have been impressed with his outstanding management skills, his leadership and his accomplishments within the company.”
Ms. Stymiest also expressed the Board’s respect and admiration for Messrs. Lazaridis and Balsillie, the company they built, and the steps they have taken to position RIM for the future.
“They created RIM, nurtured it, and in the process not only built an iconic brand, but literally pioneered the smartphone industry,” she said.  “It is Canada’s largest tech company and one of the largest in the world.”
Conference Call and Webcast
A conference call and live webcast will be held beginning at 8 am ET, January 23, 2012, which can be accessed by dialing 1-800-814-4859 (North America), (+1)416-644-3414 (outside North America) or through your personal computer or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet at www.rim.com/investors/events/index.shtml. A replay of the conference call will also be available at approximately 10 am ET by dialing (+1)416-640-1917 and entering passcode 4509630#. A replay of the webcast will be available on your personal computer or BlackBerry PlayBook tablet by clicking the link above. This replay will be available until midnight ET, February 6, 2012.
About Thorsten Heins
Thorsten Heins, 54, is a respected business leader with 27 years of broad experience and expertise in wireless networks and consumer electronics devices. Mr. Heins has a global reputation for his organizational and leadership skills and his ability to build successful organizations that deliver on their commitments. Prior to today’s announcement, Mr. Heins was one of RIM’s two Chief Operating Officers and, before that, Senior Vice President for the Handheld Business Unit.  He played key roles in the creation of RIM’s product portfolio. Mr. Heins came to RIM in December 2007 from the industrial conglomerate Siemens AG.  He joined Siemens in 1984 after graduating from the University of Hannover in his native Germany.  At Siemens, Mr. Heins rose through the ranks of R&D customer service, sales and product management positions.  After serving as Chief Executive Officer of various business divisions in the communication business, Mr. Heins moved to Chief Technology Officer and member of the Group Board of the Siemens Communications Group. He came to RIM after being impressed by the level of innovation displayed by founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. Mr. Heins is married with a daughter and a son. Away from RIM, he is usually outdoors bicycling, motorcycling, skiing or hiking.
About Barbara Stymiest
Barbara Stymiest has served as a director of RIM since March 2007.  She has an HBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, and an FCA from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.  Ms. Stymiest joined Royal Bank of Canada in 2004, where she served as a member of RBC’s Group Executive, which is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the company.  Prior to that, she held positions as Chief Executive Officer at TSX Group Inc., Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer at BMO Nesbitt Burns and Partner of Ernst & Young LLP.  Ms. Stymiest is currently a Director of George Weston Limited, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Royal Ontario Museum.
About Prem Watsa
Prem Watsa is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Chief Executive Officer of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, a financial services holding company whose corporate objective is to achieve a high rate of return on invested capital and build long-term shareholder value, since 1985. He is also Vice President of Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel Ltd. since 1985. Mr. Watsa formerly served as Vice President of GW Asset Management from 1983 to 1984 and in va

Verizon is still supporting the BlackBerry platform as they have announced the availability of the BlackBerry Curve 9370. The newest Curve will be $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate. Travelling fans of BlackBerry devices will be happy to know that his new device is a world phone.

Here is the BlackBerry Curve 9370 Press Release:

BlackBerry® Curve™ 9370 Now Available on the Verizon Wireless Network

 

01/19/2012

The slim and stylish BlackBerry® Curve™ 9370 smartphone is now available in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online at www.verizonwireless.com for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Running on the Verizon Wireless 3G network and powered by the new BlackBerry® 7 operating system, the BlackBerry Curve 9370 is designed with a comfortable and iconic keyboard for fast, accurate typing and an optical trackpad for easy, one-handed navigation. The BlackBerry Curve 9370 delivers the ultimate mobile communications and social experiences with a highly refined and integrated suite of phone, email, messaging and social applications to keep users connected and productive throughout the day.

Additional features:

·Global Ready™ – Quad-band with support for GSM, GPRS and EDGE, allowing customers to enjoy wireless voice and data service in more than 200 countries

·Support for near-field communication (NFC), enables many capabilities, including the ability to pair accessories or read SmartPoster tags with a simple tap of the smartphone

·5-megapixel camera with flash

·2.44-inch display

·Wi-Fi b/g/n

·Bluetooth® 2.1

Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted. Customers that purchase a BlackBerry Curve 9370 will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan beginning at $39.99 monthly access and a smartphone data package starting at $30 monthly access for 2 GB of data. For more information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

RIM has a contest that is starting tomorrow January 16 and runs until January 27, named JANUBERRY. With this contest, Research In Motion intends to giveaway over $7,000 in prizes, which include new devices and cases. All you have to do is follow @BlackBerry on Twitter and answer the questions tweeted out from them. Once you respond, you are entered into that contest and a winner will be announced. This is a good way for you to win some nice BlackBerry stuff and for RIM to give their fans a little joy.

Here are the list of JANUBERRY Prizes

• BlackBerry Bold 9900 Devices
• Case for BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930
• Case of Your Choice Codes
• BlackBerry Torch 9850 Devices
• Case For Torch 9850/9860
• BBMing Gloves
• BBM Chat Bubble Laptop Stickers
• BlackBerry PlayBook Device
• Case For PlayBook
• BlackBerry Beanies

{ source crackberry.com See the full contest rules on Blackberry.com }

An image of the BlackBerry London, a smartphone touted to be among the first to run Research in Motion’s next-generation mobile operating system, BBX, is being floated around the web.

The BlackBerry London is thinner than the iPhone 4s and  supposedly will sport a TI OMAP dual-core CPU clocked to 1.5GHz, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and is supposed to ship in June of 2012.

[Via The Verge]

There are at least 70 million or so folks out there still rocking BlackBerry, and, if you are one of them and would like to use your BlackBerry as a modem allowing your laptop, PC or Mac, to get onto the internet via your mobile broadband connection, then you will want to check out Tether for BlackBerry, which, just happens to be on sale today for $24.99, 50% off the regular price.

Normally $49.99, Tether for BlackBerry, unlike the monthly fees charged by your wireless carriers, has just a one time up front cost, and, today’s 50% off price of $24.99, will cost you less than one month of service from your wireless carrier or even just a few days service in an airport or hotel.

Tether for BlackBerry features include:

• Internet Anywhere: You can use Tether anywhere you can make phone calls.
• Easy Setup: Download our software to your BlackBerry and another for your laptop… Then surf the web and email just like you would with any Internet connection.
• Fast Speeds: Download speeds that are impressive. Our users download at speeds up to 1,800 kbps.
• No Tethering Fees: Tether uses your phone’s data plan and we do not charge tethering fees. (refer to our Terms of Service) (Note that significant charges may apply for data usage if not on an unlimited data plan. Please check with your carrier.)
• All BlackBerries: Tether is compatible with all BlackBerries.
• All Carriers: Tether has been used by carriers all over the world. Some carriers do require APNsettings, though. It appears our product does not work on the iDen Network.
• PC & Mac: Tether works on both PCs and Macs.

Download Tether for BlackBerry for $24.99, 50% off the regular price…

Blackberry users have been suffering for quite some time and with the recent outage at RIM things are getting worse. However, just when BlackBerry users thought all was lost, a fantastic offer is here courtesy of Windows Phone evangelist Ben Rudolph in a tweet, he sent out earlier.

Ben tweeted:

#DearBlackberry users: frustrated w/ your BB? I want to help! Tell me y u want 2 upgrade 2 a #windowsphone - I’ve got 25 to give away.

Here is the chance for 25 frustrated BlackBerry users to get onto a modern OS free of charge. In addition, with the new line of Windows Phone 7.5 hardware that is coming out, it is sure to be an upgrade from whatever BlackBerry phone you are using.

Good luck

{ via wpcentral.com }

Verizon, who has always been a strong supporter of BlackBerry phones, has announced today that they will be carrying the BlackBerry Torch 9850. This new Device from RIM will be running the latest operating system Blackberry 7. On the last Simple Mobile Review Podcast we started wondering if some of these BlackBerry 7 phones would be able to upgrade to the new QNX OS. It is tough to tell anyone to get a BlackBerry today, however the phone is nice enough that perhaps some will take the leap (aks RIMarkableRobb) . For our Blackberry readers the new device is available online at www.verizonwireless.com on Sept. 8 and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on Sept. 15.

Press Release

VERIZON WIRELESS INTRODUCES BLACKBERRY TORCH 9850 SMARTPHONE

 

BlackBerry Torch 9850 to be Available on the Nation’s Most Reliable Network

 

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Verizon Wireless today announced the new BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 smartphone will be available online at www.verizonwireless.com on Sept. 8, and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on Sept. 15.

 

Watch videos, play games and stay productive on the largest display and highest resolution on a BlackBerry smartphone to date. Powered by the new BlackBerry® 7 operating system, customers can enjoy the next generation BlackBerry browser with optimized zooming, panning and HTML 5 performance. BlackBerry® Balance is now integrated, allowing secure access to business information while preventing it from being copied into, sent from or used by personal applications. Customers can stay connected to their personal and business lives while in or out of the office.

 

Key features:

· 3G coverage on the nation’s most reliable network

 

· 3.7-inch high-resolution touchscreen display (800 x 480) with trackpad navigation

 

· 1.2 GHz processor

 

· Global Ready™ – Quad band with support for UMTS, HSPA, GSM, GPRS and EDGE allowing customers to enjoy wireless voice and data service in more than 200 countries, including more than 95 with 3G speeds

 

· 5-megapixel camera with flash and 720p HD video recording capabilities

 

· Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS and Bluetooth® 2.1

 

· 16 GB microSD™ card pre-installed, with support for up to 32 GB microSD card

 

 

BlackBerry 7:

· Liquid Graphics™ technology combines a dedicated high-performance graphics processor with a blazingly fast CPU and stunning high-resolution display to deliver a responsive touch interface with incredibly fast and smooth graphics.

 

· Premium version of Documents To Go is now included at no additional cost, offering customers enhanced document editing features, as well as a native PDF document viewer.

 

· The newest release of BBM™ (BlackBerry Messenger) now extends the real-time BBM experience together with a range of apps including gaming and social networking.

 

· Updated Social Feeds app has been extended to capture updates from media, podcasts and more, all in one consolidated view.

 

· Universal search capability now supports voice-activated search, allowing customers to simply say what they want to find on their device or the Web.

 

· BlackBerry Balance administrator can remotely wipe business information from the device while leaving personal information intact.

 

 

Pricing and availability:

· BlackBerry Torch 9850 smartphone will be available for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement.

 

· Customers that purchase a BlackBerry Torch 9850 smartphone will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan beginning at $39.99 for monthly access and a smartphone data package starting at $30 monthly access for 2 GB of data.

 

 

For more information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

 

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Media can access high-resolution images of the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 smartphone in the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.)

 

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s fastest, most advanced 4G network and largest, most reliable 3G network. The company serves 106.3 million total wireless connections, including 89.7 million retail customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 83,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, NASDAQ: VOD). For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

 

The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited.

At so many levels, RIM Blackberry devices are a total failure when compared with the rest of the Market contenders in the world today. Except for BBM. This borderless messaging services lets you chat, group-chat, send files, pictures, video, etc. to anyone else on the system with no fuss, no muss. It is drop-dead easy to do and there is zero additional cost associated with the feature. Well, except that you have to be on a Blackberry device. That is the part that really kills it for me. If you want to do cross-platform messaging, you have to download apps for all your friend’s platforms, create accounts, and try and keep up. Not very appetizing in my opinion. You can almost get there with Google Talk, but it really lacks a few feature that would make it a no-brainer. Now, Samsung is announcing ChatON, “a true global mobile communication service”, and releasing it in 120 countries and 62 languages. ChatON can do regular text messaging, and send picture and video messages as well. It can also do group chat. The service is multi-platform and available for Android, iOS, Blackberry and the Samsung Bada OS. If your flavor of choice is not in this list (Windows Phone 7?), you will be able to connect via a web-based version. There is also slated to be a feature-phone basic client so that nobody is left out. The web-based version can also be used on a PC/Mac, so it really is starting to look universal.

ChatON will debut this week during the IFA conference, so it could be in your hands very soon now. Check out the Samsung video below, as well as the poorly translated Press Release. Yeah, I got my morning laugh over that one. Enjoy!

Mobile Messenger More than that, Samsung ChatON (chaeton)

Samsung Electronics, a global communications services for the coming September ‘ChatON’ (hereinafter chaeton) start the service. The world and provides services to more than 120 countries, up to 62 languages ​​that you’d support. This world of mobile phone users to communicate beyond borders and languages, is expected to be enabling.

Chaetoneun simply is not just talking to pass the mobile messenger. Trunk (Trunk), such as sharing content through the box and profile comments to share with your friends lives the concept of micro-community is a global SNS. In addition, allowing users to communicate more effectively with a wide variety of message types, and many more platforms and is designed to be in terminal.

From now on, Samsung’s ambitious, let’s look chaetone.

Generation and space to support a variety of platforms can communicate beyond!

Multi-platform support chaetoneun smartphones, as well as the general consumer with a mobile phone is a characteristic that can be used deulkkaji. ‘Chaeton’ Galaxy of the Samsung products and its own sea-based platform offers new features, starting with phone services, also for third-party’s main platform is expected to expand in stages. Mobile phone users worldwide smartphone, feature phone to break into the ‘chaeton’ will communicate through the mornings I’m not that far!

Micro-community-oriented mobile communication services

Chaetoneun various user groups to community-based micro-oriented. Contact with the balloon that displays the frequency of conversations with the number of ‘intimate position’ feature can be a simple social networking. In addition, the ‘word to your friends’ with the ability to determine a group of friends might like to comment briefly.

Support for multimedia content to communicate emotion.

In addition to the chat room, you do not need to find each other, sharing content. Group-based content storage space of ‘trunk’ through to see at a glance because you can find. In the trunk of your photos and videos can also leave a brief moment.

1:01 chaetoneseoneun chat and group chat, group message (bulletin), and the dialog is available in a variety of ways. In addition, photos, videos, voice message, location, contacts, calendar, and supports a wide variety of multimedia content. Specifically, the background music, photos, handwritten cards and make it yourself with the ability to send animated messages can be an emotional communication.

Samsung Media Solution Director yihosu vice president, “chaetoneun Samsung’s service technology created a global mobile communications for the core services,” said “consumers want and social networking needs to meet the service to become a future sustainable performance upgrades to introduce new features,” he said.

After much speculation, RIM has announced their social music sharing and discovery service.  BBM Music, compared to Amazon Cloud Locker or Google Music, is a joke. For $5 per month you can add up to 50 songs to your profile and change up to 25 songs in your profile per months. BBM Music will allow  you to access up to 50 songs from each of your friends dumb enough to sign up for the BBM Music service. This offering highlights how out of touch RIM is with the consumer. This level of stupidity can only flow from the top of the company.

Don’t be silly, BBM Music is not worth the $5 per month. Get a DropBox account. Maybe I am reading the offering wrong or they left off a couple zero in the number of songs. I guess pyramid scheme are legal in Canada, .

Press Release

RIM Announces BBM Music – A New Social Music Sharing and Discovery Service

New Cloud-Based Music Service Makes Music a Social Experience

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) today announced BBM Music, a new BBM (BlackBerry® Messenger) service for socially connected music fans.

BBM Music is an easy-to-use cloud-based service that enables social and viral music discovery by allowing users to build an evolving, community-based music library that is shared amongst their BBM Music friends. The size of the music library continues to grow as new friends join the community and each user can select music from a catalog with millions of songs from leading music companies – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI.

“More than 45 million customers already love the social communication benefits delivered through BBM and we are thrilled to be extending the experience into a uniquely social and interactive music service,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “We have partnered with leading music companies to provide a „full track? music sharing and discovery experience that will provide users with quality music on demand and allow them to connect with friends on a whole new level.”

Key features of BBM Music include:

- Music made social – BBM Music is a cloud-based, social music service that allows you to share and discover music with your friends, creating a continually evolving music library:

- Build a personal music profile with 50 of your favorite songs. You can refresh your profile by swapping out up to 25 songs each month.

- Invite your BBM friends to subscribe to BBM Music and to join your BBM Music Community.

- With each friend that is added to BBM Music, you grow your music collection since the songs from the profile of each BBM Music friend are available to you at any time.

- Up to 50 tracks from your personal profile are shared with your BBM Music Community, and each member of your community shares up to 50 songs from their profile with you.

- Enjoy a truly social community-based music experience – the more friends who join your community, the more songs you can listen to.

- Easily discover music that your BBM Music friends are listening to, and comment on your friends? songs and playlists.

- You can create multiple playlists from music in your profile as well as all of your friends? profiles, and with one click you can shuffle the entire collection of music from your BBM Music Community. You can even see which friend contributed each song while it plays.

- Within your BBM Music app, you also see a visual timeline that shows the recent updates of all users within your community. It gives you a chronological view of community updates, including who added new friends, which songs were added or removed, which playlists were created and what comments were made by your BBM Music friends.

- Listen to Full Tracks – BBM Music subscribers can listen to full tracks from their friends? profiles – not just previews.

- Offline Listening – Music can be saved to smartphones for offline listening, allowing users to access songs even when they don?t have wireless coverage.

- Topping the Charts – Keep track of how many friends are listening to your tracks.

“A major component of online music continues to be about community, and the ability to discover new artists and music through word of mouth,” stated Rob Wells, President of Global Digital Business for Universal Music Group. “BBM Music dynamically and elegantly integrates the excitement of this social music discovery process with a high quality music service, enabling tens of millions of BlackBerry users to experience new music and to share those experiences with their friends virtually anywhere and at anytime.”

“We are pleased to be partnering with Research In Motion on their BBM Music service. RIM and its large base of BlackBerry Messenger users represent an exciting platform for expanding the reach of commercial digital music around the world,” stated Thomas Hesse, President, Global Digital Business, U.S. Sales and Corporate Strategy, Sony Music Entertainment. “The combination of a premium music solution and instant messaging will enable viral music discovery and emphasize the social power of digital music. It also offers an effective way of serving younger consumers by integrating music into the fabric of an important hub of their digital activity.”

“A dynamic social music experience is a powerful way for our artists to connect with fans and also for fans to discover music by interacting with each other,” said Michael Nash, Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy & Business Development, Warner Music Group. “Addressing more than 45 million BlackBerry Messenger users with a service tailor-made for its mobile community, BBM Music has the opportunity to reach a broad and engaged audience.”

“We are very excited to work with Research In Motion to bring our artists? music to BBM?s huge and very loyal user base,” said Mark Piibe, Executive Vice President of Global Business Development at EMI Music. “BBM Music?s unique social discovery experience offers fans a great new way to discover music, share their favorite tracks with their friends and build a stronger connection with the artists they love.”

“The widespread adoption of mobile devices provides the perfect foundation for consuming and sharing music. Brands that want to deliver a unique interactive experience must create services that are mobile, social, and contextual,” said Maribel Lopez Principal at Lopez Research and Constellation Research Group.

A closed (limited) beta trial of the BBM Music service is starting today in Canada, the United States and the UK. The BBM Music service is expected to be commercially available to customers later this year for a monthly subscription of $4.99 USD* in Australia, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, the United Kingdom and the United States.

BlackBerry users that also use a BlackBerry PlayBook will be happy to know that BlackBerry Bridge v1.0.5.6 is now available in BlackBerry App World.  Updates to BlackBerry Bridge, the software that allows you to pair your BlackBerry with your PlayBook, often comes as precursor to an update to BlackBerry Tablet OS, so, we will keep our eyes peeled for any BlackBerry PlayBook updates…

[Via RIMarkable]