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Research In Motion continues to extend the capabilities of its BlackBerry wireless handhelds to other vendor's devices through its BlackBerry Connect program. The latest to gain BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Internet Service compatibility is Sony Ericsson's M600i for Indonesian carrier Indosat. So through the BlackBerry Connect licensing program, Indosat can offer secure, push-based wireless e-mail and data services for the smartphone, which it already does for Sony Ericsson's P910.

Specifically, BlackBerry Enterprise Server will wirelessly connect M600i users to Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino, automatically synchronize calendars, perform remote address lookup of corporate e-mail directories, enable e-mail-attachment viewing, deliver Triple DES encryption, and allow for IT policy enforcement and commands—such as remotely disabling or wiping email and PIM data from a device in the event it is lost or stolen.

For individuals and smaller businesses, BlackBerry Internet Service allows users to access multiple corporate and personal email accounts (including Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and most popular ISP email accounts) from a single device.

BlackBerry Connect allows RIM to give its customers more flexibility in choosing devices to support in the enterprise. After all, the company isn't just in the hardware business - even though it has sold 5.5 million devices and 70 percent of its revenue comes from BlackBerrys. About 20 percent of RIM’s earnings is from the service itself.

RIM VP Asia Pacific Norm Lo said, "RIM is pleased to work with Sony Ericsson and Indosat to bring the BlackBerry services to the M600i for customers in Indonesia. With BlackBerry Connect, M600i users will enjoy optimized wireless connectivity based on the unique and proven BlackBerry architecture."

The only smartphone shipping to support BlackBerry Connect in the U.S. so far is Nokia's 9300. More are expected to follow, however.

Singapore's SingTel became the first mobie operator in the world to deliver RIM's BlackBerry service to Palm's Treo 650 smartphone in April.

Another BlackBerry-compatible handset, the much more phone-like (thinner and sleeker) Samsung SGH-T719 made its inaugural appearance at about the same time; although it is now available yet. The SGH-T719 is much smaller than either a BlackBerry, Treo or the 9300, and it sports the same SureType keyboard/keypad hybrid as RIM's more phone-like 7100 BlackBerry series. The T719 isn't due to ship until September.

About the M600
The M600 (also available in Europe) (the M600i is the Asian variant) is the Swedish/Japanese partnership's second Symbian OS 9.1 and UIQ 3.0 interface handset, after the P990i. Both feature a touch screen, handwriting recognition, UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)—a WCDMA 3G broadband technology that delivers 400 to 700 Kbps data transfers, a 262K (320 x 240 pixel resolution) 2.6-inch touch display, USB 2.0 with charging, and Bluetooth. Unlike the P990, the M660 doesn't offer Wi-Fi, however.

The larger 4.4 x 2.2 x 1.0-inch (114 x 57 x 26 millimeter) P990i is a flipphone with a traditional QWERTY thumb-keyboard embedded in the phone and a keypad on the flap, while the compact and thin M600 (just 15 millimeters thick) is built more in the mold of the Treo and Motorola's upcoming Q smartphone.

Sony Ericsson says the ergonomic design of the M600 makes it easy to operate with one hand or two and gives versatile options on how to perform messaging tasks. So it has a dual function keyboard for text and number input. The keypad/keyboard is a hybrid of sorts between a full QWERTY and number-pad layout. Blue numbers are embedded on the keys, which serve multiple letter and character functions as well.

Spell checking and word completion software takes care of the rest when messaging. It will be available in four keyboard variants: QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY and Russian. There's also a 3-way jog dial.

Inside, the tri-band GSM smartphone bundles 80 MB of memory with an added 64 MB Memory Stick Micro thrown in for good measure.

It supports the range of Microsoft Office document formats and bundles Opera 8 for Web browser, RSS for news feeds, VPN software, and a PDF viewer, and features a speakerphone, flight mode, plus an external antenna connector.

The M600's media player supports MP3, AAC, ACC+, E-AAC+ and m4a audio formats and it can stream both audio and video; Video playback is 30 frames per second. The lack of a camera and support for such a plethora of e-mail solutions gear the M600 directly at the enterprise, which often prefers handsets without picture taking capabilities for security reasons.

The M600 ships in Granite Black and Crystal White.