Business people—especially those in the financial and legal sectors—love their BlackBerry handhelds. Some are so addicted to Research In Motion's mobile devices, they even refer to them as "crackberries."

Today, the fasted growing handheld platform earned a thumbs up from Sybase subsidiary iAnywhere Solutions with the announcement that its popular and free AvantGo mobile Internet service is finally BlackBerry compatible.

It's about time.

Last year, BlackBerry shipments grew consistently year-over-year at around 200 to 300 percent. Some pundits even predict RIM's platform will lead the mobile device segment—over the likes of the Windows Mobile and Palm operating systems—by the end of 2005.

Currently in beta, Avantgo for BlackBerry lets you wirelessly connect to the Internet service’s thousands of specially formatted Web sites (known as channels) to receive all sorts of business, sports, and entertainment news. Channels include AccuWeather, Bloomberg, CNET, Forbes, Hollywood.com, The Golf Channel, Reuters, RollingStone.com, The Sporting News, Wired News, and more.

In addition to its standard channels, Avantgo lets you create personal channels and the Avantgo browser can be used as a regular mobile Web browser.

Avantgo senior director Neil Versen told SmartPhoneToday that BlackBerry compatibility is partly the result of consumer demand. He said, "We've heard from quite a few customers over the past few months that RIM was a platform they'd like supported, so given our (iAnywhere & Sybase’s) existing relationship with RIM, the decision made a lot of sense."

Avantgo, which earns much of its revenue from advertising and channel sponsorships, could benefit greatly from the possible addition of millions of more pairs of eyes to its service.

Versen spins today's development as a benefit to users, of course.

"AvantGo for BlackBerry offers millions of BlackBerry users with access to the world's most popular mobile Internet service, while at the same time giving our seven million existing users another platform to choose from," he said.

Unlike Avantgo for Palm or Windows Mobile, for example, the version for BlackBerry doesn't store pages on the handheld for later viewing or sync pages from a desktop computer. So RIM handheld owners won't have the option and convenience of accessing Avantgo content without a wireless connection like these other platforms.

Syncing Avantgo content to a device from a PC and making it available on a handheld goes way back to the service's beginnings when there where no wireless PDAs or smartphones.

Users of devices running other supported platforms can read both on-device and wireless Avantgo content. It would be a nice feature for BlackBerry users as well, especially when their devices are out of cellular network range.

Perhaps Avantgo's decision is the result of the relatively small amount of RAM bundled with most BlackBerry handhelds. Memory card slots are scarce in these devices as well.

Or, maybe, Avantgo is looking for a way to ingratiate itself with carriers who offer BlackBerry handhelds. You see, operators like anything that boosts data usage and, therefore, increases revenue.

Accessing Avantgo wirelessly fits the bill nicely for them. This may in turn encourage operators to bundle the Avantgo for BlackBerry client with their devices.

The finished version of the Avantgo for BlackBerry client should ship within a month.

Sales Force
For enterprises, iAnywhere launched its Mobile Sales for BlackBerry Early Adopter Program this morning. This mobile sales solution extends custom and packaged CRM systems such as those from Salesforce.com and Siebel to handhelds.

Participants of the Early Adopter Program will gain early access to the pre- release BlackBerry software for wireless features like push updates and trickle synchronization.

iAnywhere senior product manager Lubos Parobek asserts, "Mobile Sales for BlackBerry will extend our industry leading ease-of-use, performance and reliability to the BlackBerry platform. Usability is a key factor for successful handheld deployments, and Mobile Sales for BlackBerry delivers exceptional ease-of-use through automatic updates, large dataset support, and an advanced user interface."

Salesforce.com is co-sponsoring the Early Adopter Program.