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TORONTO — Jim Balsillie wants to take the Blackberry deeper into social networking, including partnerships with online music and video communities.
Research In Motion, the Waterloo, Ont.-based pioneer of the Blackberry wireless communications device, has created a partnership with Dipdive, a nascent social networking platform started last year by hip-hop artist Will.i.am, a member of the Black Eyed Peas.
Dipdive's platform has so far been focused on celebrity endorsements of Barack Obama's campaign for presidency, but RIM expects to launch the service on its device in the next few months as a way to bolster viral online functions on the Blackberry.
The burgeoning platform would likely be expanded to build a larger online community and offer more content beyond what it has now.
Research In Motion
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Mr. Balsillie, the co-chief executive officer of RIM, suggested social networking is the next major stage of wireless device evolution, beyond simple communication by e-mail and phone.
“Make no mistake about it these communications devices you carry are full and rich multimedia machines,” Mr. Balsillie said during a speech to Canadian Music Week in Toronto, a yearly gathering of the record industry.
He said the goal is to “bring content and community together” on a Blackberry. The move is also being seen as a sort of celebrity endorsement for RIM. The company's rival, Apple Inc., has aggressively tried to link its iPod music devices and iPhone with popular musicians. Blackberry sponsored John Mayer's concert tour last year, but has been less active in branding itself as a pop-culture device.
Social networking is “really just a next generation, highly contextualized way for people to interact,” he said. “It's been tremendously successful on the Blackberry.”
Beyond Dipdive, RIM is being approached by several content providers and platforms wanting to launch on the Blackberry, he said. However, RIM has been careful in the past about what functions and partnerships it adds to its product.
Mr. Balsillie said in an interview after the speech that RIM isn't out pitching itself to content providers, though many are looking to talk to the company.
He urged the music industry to back the advancements in social networking and wireless decides, in a bid to bring the business back to “the front of the class” in an age when the Internet and downloading have hit record companies hard.
