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Although Research In Motion (RIM) recently surpassed two million subscribers for its mobile e-mail and data access solutions and moved into third place in handheld sales with close to two 20 percent of the market, technology licensing is becoming just as much a key to its success as BlackBerry device sales.

To make its solutions more readily available to device manufacturers, RIM introduced BlackBerry Built-In and BlackBerry Connect last summer. With these licensing programs, vendors can more easily incorporate BlackBerry applications and services, including e-mail, calendaring and browsing, into smartphones, cell phones, and PDAs other than RIM's own BlackBerry handhelds.

Two carriers, BT in Europe and T-Mobile International, recently took advantage of RIM's licensing programs to expand the number of devices they can offer subscribers BlackBerry services on.

BT reached an agreement with Siemens and RIM to offer the Siemens SK65 handset with BlackBerry Built-In technology. The Siemens SK65 (see image) was the first mobile phone to offer BlackBerry e-mail, Calendar, and Browser applications through BlackBerry Built-In.

As a result of this deal, BT customers get 'always on', push-based access to their calendar and inbox via the Siemens SK65. E-mails received on their desktop computer are automatically sent to their mobile phone, which is synchronized wirelessly with the office system.

BT's Chief of Mobility & Convergence said the deal with RIM "epitomizes the type of device combining voice and data which we believe will be in demand by our increasingly mobile business customers," while the company's CEO Steven Evans asserted, "it's important we work with partners who share our vision and have a range of devices that suit the business lifestyles of all our customers, which is why we have chosen Siemens as a key provider."

For its part, T-Mobile International will initially add support for BlackBerry services to the popular MDA II Pocket PC Phone, with other devices—the new MDA III, Sony Ericsson P910i, Nokia 6820, and, like BT, the Siemens SK65—coming onboard the BlackBerry bandwagon early this year.

T-Mobile International Head of Business Marketing Andre Stark declared, "The extension of the BlackBerry service to a much wider range of new and stylish mobile phone handsets allows T-Mobile to address the needs of a broader target group of mobile workers which can now have a much larger variety of handsets to choose from."

Stark continued, "Both user groups, those with preference for a small and handy voice phone as well as mobile workers with need for a feature rich wireless device will have the freedom to choose the device of their preference from a larger choice of BlackBerry-enabled handsets from T-Mobile."