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In spite of stiffer competition in the mobile e-mail market, Research In Motion (RIM) keeps chugging along, adding new users at an impressive clip, nearly doubling the number of BlackBerry subscribers from just under 3 million this time last year to about 5.5 million today. The company expects to do the same as it possibly heads towards 10 million accounts next year; signing up 680,000 new users during its last fiscal quarter ending June 3rd, and predicting 675,000 to 700,000 more during the current one.

RIM Chairman & co-CEO Jim Balsillie said,” We see a tremendous opportunity with the new products and the new launches," during the company’s annual shareholders meeting yesterday, according to the Calgary Sun.

United Nations Under BlackBerry
New operator partners and international markets are important to RIM's growth. Already, its products are offered by 180 carriers in 60 countries. And, as of today, 26 percent of users fall outside of the company's stronghold of North America.

Taiwan, Japan, South Korean and China a just a few recent, and important, new additions in RIM's worldwide advance. According to Balsillie, the company will continue to be aggressive when it comes to expanding into other regions.

"We've got another 120 or 130 carriers to launch around the world, so it's still very busy," Balsillie said to Reuters. "And I don't see that changing."

During the shareholders meeting Balsillie emphasized Latin America, the Middle East and Africa as growth spots for the company.

Wider Varieties With More Features
The Calgary Sun said the handheld vendor expects to launch 20 more BlackBerrys this year. While that may be true, RIM often releases variations on a single BlackBerry for different markets, so the number may not really be that high.

What's more important is that Balsillie continued to emphasize bringing a wider range of features to the BlackBerry, including multimedia - with music, photography and video - like he did a few weeks ago at the C3 Expo in New York.

"We'll be definitely supporting more forms of media, it's a big part of our direction," Balsillie told Reuters, as it "opens up some bigger markets." He added, "It's totally adjacent and complementary in some respects, but also in other respects it lays right on top (of) our existing market."

RIM recently filed for a patent to not integrate a picture-taking into a BlackBerry, but to remote control a camera (photo or video) and view its images with a handheld.

AppleBerry?
Interestingly, when asked about the rumors that his company and Apple working on a device that's been dubbed the AppleBerry , Balsillie declined to comment. Nor did he say if talks with Apple even took place. That’s far from the denial one might expect if there was no truth to the rumors.

The source of a RIM/Apple partnership was Canaccord Capital analyst Peter Misek, who correctly predicted RIM's integration of Intel technology into BlackBerrys last year. Misek speculated that Apple may develop a handset merging an iPod and BlackBerry or, perhaps, RIM could integrate the iTunes software into a future BlackBerry.

The Q Effect
Balsillie also commented on the impact of Motorola's Q Windows Mobile-based smartphone, which is aimed squarely at competing with RIM's BlackBerry and other smartphones with QWERTY thumb-keyboards like Palm's Treo, on his company's devices. So far, it seems, there's been little effect.

"We just haven't seen it impact our market," he said to Reuters "I know they're aggressively promoting it, aggressively pricing it, and it could be that it's finding traction in other places, but we definitely haven't seen it in our market."

It appears the Q has done well with consumers, but it doesn't seem to tread on RIM's sweet spot, which is enterprises and professionals that place a premium on security and reliability.

Patent Claims
Although RIM has recovered strongly from its five year patent infringement suit with - and eventual $612.5 million payout to - holding company NTP, it has another legal tangle to contend with; this time with fellow push e-mail provider Visto.

Visto sued RIM in May after winning a patent infringement suit against fellow wireless e-mail provider Seven Networks. The company claims RIM infringed on the very same patents as Seven. RIM countered a few days later with a motion stating Visto's patents weren't valid to start with, and may sue the Redwood City, CA company for trampling on its own patents.

RIM On The Move
Meanwhile, in addition to entering new markets and releasing numerous devices, including its first UMTS 3G BlackBerry, the 8707v, RIM has introduced variations on its BlackBerry Enterprise Server to better attract small business ( Hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server & BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express) and mobilize applications (BlackBerry Enterprise Server for MDS Applications), tightened ties with IBM and Lotus Notes/Domino, and bought a company (Ascendent Systems) to better integrate BlackBerry with corporate voice systems, among other moves.

Balsillie said RIM will continue to look to acquire companies that compliment his RIM's offerings. "We're always looking at technology acquisitions, we're always looking at rounding out the sort of whole BlackBerry middleware solution proposition," he said to Reuters. "Are we looking at some great big blockbuster thing? No."