CTIA: Blackberry aims for consumer appeal

Furthering the entertainment theme, RIM is working on offering support for Windows Media player to sync desktop music, photos and videos, as well as include remote playlist management. Today, Slacker, a popular Web radio service, also announced it will create an application for the Blackberry. The app will let users create their own personalized stations from a list of 100. RIM is also looking at building new content relationships, more gaming applications and an announced partnership with Microsoft to provide search and ads on Blackberry maps. A new relationship with Ticketmaster will also let RIM users exercise their mobile wallet – buy tickets on the go, receive concert alerts and eventually use the mobile handset as a ticket distribution mechanism.

The manufacturer didn’t forget mobile video either. Balsillie said that the trickiest part of enabling convergence amongst the four screens is the sync between video content and mobile. Along those lines, RIM is partnering with TiVo to provide access to programming and management of the TiVo box remotely. Consumers can program, scan schedules and remotely control the PVR as well as put shows directly on the Blackberry.

“This rich dynamic, alerting, contextualized content relationship is not a concept, it’s a reality,” Balsillie said. “The ability in wireless is the enabler…This transition from fixed to mobile is already happening.”