The MySpace for BlackBerry application has exceeded 1 million downloads in one month.

The application launched in November and set a record with 400,000 downloads in the first week. This represented an all-time high for both MySpace and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion for first-week application downloads.

"Social networking is becoming a large part of the mobile consumer experience," said John Faith, general manager and vice president of mobile for MySpace, Beverly Hills, CA. "The rapid adoption of our BlackBerry smartphone app reflects that a growing number of people are maintaining their social networks using wireless handsets.

"This record also shows that consumers are embracing smartphones and not just using them for business purposes anymore," he said.

MySpace claims to have 14 million unique WAP users per month.

In November, MySpace and Research In Motion launched an integrated MySpace Mobile experience customized for BlackBerry phones.

The MySpace for BlackBerry smartphones application is fully optimized to deliver rich content and data to consumers on their handset.

"BlackBerry smartphone users have unsurprisingly been quick to understand and lead mobile trends and we are seeing many of our customers strongly embrace mobile social networking as an integral part of their communications and day-to-day lives," said Jim Balsillie, co-CEO at Research In Motion, Waterloo, Ontario, in a prepared statement.

"MySpace was one of the first social networking sites to get it right and we are thrilled to join forces to continue evolving and enhancing the mobile social networking experience for our mutual user base," he said.

MySpace for BlackBerry smartphones integrates MySpace's main social networking components with the BlackBerry platform to provide instant, push-based messaging to BlackBerry and MySpace consumers.

As part of this collaboration, Research In Motion also created a BlackBerry community page on MySpace for consumers to access the latest BlackBerry smartphone news, content, videos, games, ringtones, skins and other features.

Weathering the Storm
Meanwhile, despite the economic downturn, Research In Motion gave a surprisingly optimistic forecast for holiday sales of its BlackBerry smartphones.

The company said it was entering the holiday season with "strong momentum."

Research In Motion last week reported its third-quarter results for the three months ending on Nov. 29, 2008, which were pretty much in line with expectations. It also announced 2.6 million new customer additions in the third quarter.

The device manufacturer has spent aggressively to support its successful consumer push, but the large investments have had an effect on profit margins.

In addition, sales going forward are uncertain, as it is unclear what effect the recession will have on the handset market.

Even in a down economy, enterprise mobility initiatives will be a priority next year, according to Forrester Research.

"Mobile applications and solutions let enterprises cut costs and improve employee productivity or worker efficiency - all important initiatives in a constrained business environment," writes Forrester analyst Michele Pelino in the report, "Predictions 2009: What's In Store For Enterprise Mobility."

"In contrast, mobile initiatives will have a lower priority for small and medium-sized businesses," she said.

While the BlackBerry -- traditionally strong in the business/enterprise market -- has made inroads into the consumer market, Apple's consumer-focused iPhone is making inroads into the business/enterprise market.

Forrester predicts that the iPhone will continue to make a significant dent in the enterprise mobility market in 2009, "particularly among SMBs, which typically don't have as strict IT requirements as large enterprises or widespread line-of-business application deployments," according to Ms. Pelino.

Forrester sees iPhone adoption reaching 10 percent of the small and midsized businesses market.

In contrast, "the BlackBerry Storm will give larger enterprises that already support BlackBerry an alternative solution," Ms. Pelino said.

Hail sales
Research In Motion's revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 was $2.78 billion, up 7.9 percent from $2.58 billion in the previous quarter and up 66.3 percent from $1.67 billion in the same quarter of last year.

The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 81 percent for devices, 13 percent for service, 2 percent for software and 4 percent for other revenue.

During the quarter, Research In Motion shipped approximately 6.7 million devices.

Approximately 2.6 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts were added in the quarter.

At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base increased from the prior quarter by approximately 14 percent to approximately 21 million.

Research In Motion's net income for the quarter was $396.3 million, or 69 cents per share diluted, compared with a net income of $495.5 million, or 86 cents per share diluted, in the prior quarter and net income of $370.5 million, or 65 cents per share diluted, in the same quarter last year.

Adjusted net income for the quarter was $477.3 million, or 83 cents per share diluted.

Adjusted earnings per share excludes a negative impact on Research In Motion's tax rate due to the significant depreciation of the Canadian dollar in the third quarter and its effect on the company's U.S.-dollar-denominated assets and liabilities held by its Canadian operating companies that are subject to tax in Canadian dollars.

Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 ending Feb. 28, 2009, is expected to be in the range of $3.3 billion to $3.5 billion.

Net subscriber account additions in the fourth quarter are expected to be approximately 2.9 million.

"We are pleased to report record revenue results for the third quarter and we have entered the fourth quarter with strong momentum despite the challenging general economic conditions," Mr. Balsillie said in the statement. "In fact, we have enjoyed our best ever start to the holiday buying season over the past few weeks.

"RIM launched an unprecedented number of BlackBerry smartphones in the third quarter and these new products are being adopted at an even faster pace than we expected," he said. "Our industry-leading product portfolio is positioned well to capitalize on the increasing market opportunity in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 and beyond."