MONTREAL - The maker of the BlackBerry is positioning the mobile device to appeal to a range of consumers beyond the legions of business users already hooked on the smartphone.
Waterloo, Ont.-based Research In Motion Ltd. would like to see the BlackBerry become a much more social piece of technology, says co-CEO Jim Balsillie.
And RIM believes one of the keys to achieving that is tapping into the growing trend of Internet social networking sites such as FaceBook.com, portals that allow consumers to share information about their lives and access multimedia content, particularly music, on their mobile devices.
"Architecturally, music and the social networking are going to merge," Balsillie said ahead of a Thursday speech to the Canadian Music Week festival in Toronto.
"So when you want music, do you want to buy hits or do you want to be part of a community? That's the big question."
Competition is one of the main reasons RIM would want to extend the appeal of its products to non-business users.
Apple Inc., which dominates the digital music player space with its immensely popular iPod, said Thursday it will tweak the iPhone -- its big offering in the mobile Internet market - to work better with business e-mail.
The next software update for iPhones will enable them to work with Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange e-mail software, widely used by businesses to handle e-mail.
That will likely pose only a small immediate threat to RIM -- already firmly entrenched as the North American leader in business mobile devices and quickly growing its presence globally -- but it's aware that more than 2.3 million iPhones were sold during the latest quarter.
The BlackBerry maker appears just as eager to show it can move into Apple's comfort zone.
Last year, RIM launched software that makes it easier for BlackBerry users to access FaceBook, letting them automatically receive messages from the site like they receive e-mail on the BlackBerry.
RIM wants to do more of that, Balsillie said, though he didn't provide specifics on whether RIM would accomplish this with more software programs or partnerships.
But he did say such moves will help BlackBerrys connect to social network sites that can give users access to get music and artists, while keeping them up to date.
"That's where I go can to get my blog, I get my social commentary, I can have a community with friends and fans, I can get new videos, I can get new music. I can look at concert tickets," he said.
"It becomes a direct way for the fan to interact with the artist and fundamentally also get their content directly."
Getting the BlackBerry further enmeshed with the latest Internet communication trends is "one of the pieces of the overall puzzle that will make these devices indispensable to the way people communicate online and wirelessly today," said analyst Carmi Levy.
"The better they can integrate the lifestyle functions into the BlackBerry, the more they will be able to appeal to this new market," said Levy, senior vice-president of strategic consulting at Toronto's AR Communications Inc.
"Really what RIM is doing is positioning itself to be flexible and agile so that it can implement those services and partnerships relatively easily when it becomes apparent that they are indeed a hit."
RIM is one of Canada's most valuable and best-known corporations, worth more than $56 billion with revenues of more than $3 billion for its last fiscal year.
While the company has rapidly grown its BlackBerry business with corporate and government customers in Canada and the United States, it is not widely recognized as a music device maker.
Changing that perception will likely mean more sales, said analyst Iain Grant.
"There's still a lot of demand for portable music," said Grant of the SeaBoard Group.
"We haven't normally associated RIM with that and it's good to see. We've been watching RIM trying to transform itself from a business tool to a consumer tool and this is part of that journey."
While social networking has given fans more access to their favourite music at home via land-based Internet connections, taking it mobile will allow them more options on the fly, said Balsillie.
"It's not just here's a cheaper way to buy songs. It's not just about buying songs. It's about community," Balsillie said.
RIM wants to tap into the kind of "viral" success that FaceBook and more recently DipDive.com - a social networking site supporting U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama - have enjoyed.
Balsillie cited the involvement of Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.I.Am. and DipDive as an example of how music and social networking come together on the Internet.
"What's interesting is he believes that it's the merger of a social force and a lifestyle and a source of good and a source of community for the fan," Balsillie said.
"And I was always wondering when the artists were going to take back a direct relationship with the fans."
Will.I.Am and a host of celebrities created the "Yes We Can" video, promoted and available on DipDive, for Obama's run at the Democratic nomination.
"That's the point that really gets my attention, because these guys now realize that it's not just a portal relationship, it's a social relationship," said Balsillie.
"It's an architectural merging of portal, social and music sites."
Balsillie said the new trend could replace other ways of communicating on mobile devices.
"The intensity of the social networking collaboration I believe is increasing, or it may displace e-mail or IM (instant messaging) because it's a shifting of collaboration, too," he said.
"It positions us exceptionally well. It shifts the social networking and the architectural merging to our strengths."
Balsillie said RIM wants to share in trends outside of the business world and is keenly aware that consolidation in the entertainment industry will create enormous opportunity for players in mobile sector.
"It's going to be merged by smart players with multimedia content and the smart artists and content owners are going to rapidly enhance their role in this new world, if they play their cards smart rather than being sort of passive."
In trading Thursday on the TSX, RIM shares fell $3.43 to close at C$97, a drop of more than 3.4 per cent on a trading volume of nearly 1.7 million shares.
