HP, RIM form Blackberry alliance

US computer giant Hewlett-Packard and Canada's Research In Motion (RIM) announced an alliance on Monday to provide applications and services for the popular Blackberry smartphone.

"Emerging models of communications and collaboration have created an opportunity for RIM and HP to provide service-based mobile solutions that deliver value to customers," HP executive vice president Ann Livermore said.

"Through our collaboration with HP, businesses will have access to an expanded set of applications and services for their BlackBerry smartphone deployments," RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie added.

HP and RIM, in a joint statement, said the services being offered included giving the Blackberry the ability to wirelessly print emails, documents, photos and Web pages from anywhere.

HP CloudPrint for BlackBerry is "printer-agnostic and driverless and requires simple Internet access," they said.

(c) 2009 AFP