RIM and Google team up for corporate Gmail

Google has announced a deal with RIM to port its Mobile Search and Gmail apps onto the BlackBerry Enterprise Server platform.

This means that corporate BlackBerrys (the ones you see stern looking people in suits peering at angrily on the train as they find out Clive from accounts has ONCE AGAIN dropped the ball on the Schulbecker deal) will be able to host Google's favourite applications.

As those of you who work in an office and have either got / have been denied a BlackBerry, the whole BES is heavily locked down, so introducing 'legitimate' Google apps is a pretty big thing.

Users will either have to ask their IT guy to push the apps down to the handset, or the same IT bods can post the apps on an intranet where they can be downloaded securely.

We want to see the G-Berry

Whether this signals a movement towards Gmail being used for more corporate accounts or simply as a tandem email address, it's still good news for the user.

Google has been quick to extol the virtues of the deal over on its blog: "The ability to quickly search for information outside of the office is useful to workers on the go. With Google Mobile App, employees can search by voice, or otherwise quickly type queries by selecting query suggestions or past queries in their search history.

"Users can search for anything they can find on Google, such as stock quotes, product information, or weather. Google Mobile App also enables local search thanks to My Location -- just try searching for "pizza" or "hotel". Google Mobile App conveniently launches Google Maps, where it it is easy to get driving, transit, or walking directions."

Via Google's Mobile Blog