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RIM has long held back from integrating multimedia into its devices, focusing instead on data security and connectivity, while competitors like Palm with the Treo, Nokia with the NSseries and Motorola with the Q, for example, have brought picture and video to their smartphones. So when the Canadian vendor's co-CEO & Chairman Jim Balsillie said new features would finally be arriving with upcoming BlackBerrys not too long ago - notably image capture, but also Wi-Fi, MP3 players, video, and memory expansion - the list was sure to turn even the most veteran BlackBerry-user red with anticipation.

While it's simple enough to assume Balsillie meant integrating a camera into a BlackBerry with image capture, a new RIM patent filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office indicates RIM's idea for mixing up BlackBerrys and camera has broader implications. The patent application, titled "Apparatus for Wireless Operation and Control of a Camera," is for the remote control of a camera (photo or video) and viewing of images with a handheld.

The filing says this can be done by attaching a BlackBerry to a camera or using software to wirelessly control it. "It is often the case that it is not practical or possible to look through the camera's viewfinder and operate the camera to capture a desired image from a particular desired location or angle," according to the RIM filing, as reported by the The Globe & Mail. "Thus, there is a need for an apparatus that would enable a user to remotely view possible images that may be captured by a digital camera and remotely control the operation of the digital camera."

Does this mean RIM may not release a BlackBerry with a camera, but is - instead - simply going to enable users to connect their handhelds to cameras? We doubt it.

While smartphones with integrated cameras may always be unwelcome in certain corporate and government settings, much of the market welcomes and craves their integration. Cameras have become check off items to many people, especially with consumers and small businesses, where RIM would like to compete more effectively.

Just last week, RIM released a version of its BlackBerry Enterprise Server for the 50 percent of small businesses who outsource their e-mail, for instance. With Hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server, RIM wants to give those individuals and companies a cheaper incentive - to be offered by their ISPs and carriers - to use its services and handhelds to go wireless.

On the flipside, devices built using the technology described in this patent application would enable security conscious enterprises to roll out cameras to employees who may need them while standardizing on a single camera-less BlackBerry, for example.