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We’re seeing a real convergence here. The Apple iPhone was invented to be a neato-o device for the consumer market. But now it’s trying to enter the business realm with Exchange compatibility and push email. RIM’s BlackBerry was invented to be a useful device for the business market. But not only are we seeing more and more people adopting the BlackBerry for personal use, we’re seeing RIM try to develop that market. Some of this relates to the rumored 9000 series, but for right now, it relates mostly to social networking. And that’s where Will.i.am’s Dipdive comes in.

RIM plans to make the Dipdive community — which is heavily focused on politics in general and presidential candidate Barack Obama specifically — available wireless via BlackBerry.

“Probably the two hottest trends in wireless are social networking … and the other one is the multimedia, which is principally portable music,” Balsillie said.
…
Dipdive, he said, is an example of this — where politics-heavy blogging meets music video content.

“It brings the artist into a direct relationship with the fan,” Balsillie said.

This isn’t RIM’s first foray into social networks. I don’t think you’ll have difficulty remembering the BlackBerry Facebook app. I know Rae hasn’t…

[Reuters]

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