Earlier this week, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion put out a press release about a new BlackBerry Application Suite for Windows Mobile 6 devices that will allow select Windows Mobile powered PDAs to run a “Virtual BlackBerry” of sorts like an application within Windows Mobile 6.

This announcement came kind of as a surprise to many who follow the mobile industry and there was a lot of reaction, good and bad, to the thought that PDA users may soon be able to buy one of the BlackBerry’s biggest competitors devices, yet still get many of the benefits of buying a BlackBerry.

Personally I thought that it was just a matter of time before RIM started to go down this path and honestly believe that it is one of the strategies that will keep RIM on top for years to come. In the short term, however, I think that the impact of this announcement could have been ten-fold if RIM had announced a Virtual BlackBerry Suite for the iPhone.

Here are my 5 reasons why RIM should create a Virtual BlackBerry Suite for the iPhone.

  • The BlackBerry and the iPhone go after different demographics. This may change over time, but, the BlackBerry and the iPhone simply aren’t competitors right now. RIM doesn’t have to worry about declining business user sales because of the iPhone. Why not pick up some extra subscriber fees from iPhone users that want to check email like on a BlackBerry.
  • iPhone users would have a ton of applications already developed for the BlackBerry available to them. Word on the street is that third party applications won’t be available for the iPhone so coming pre-loaded with a Virtual BlackBerry OS would open the iPhone to the thousands of BlackBerry applications already developed.
  • iBerry, undoubtedly the perfect name for a Virtual BlackBerry client running on the iPhone, just sounds cool.
  • And finally, because no matter what RIM does, Apple will eventually sell millions and millions of iPhones to consumers at a rate unlike anything the BlackBerry has ever done and probably will ever do. Microsoft is a huge competitor to the BlackBerry and if RIM is going to put a virtual BlackBerry suite on Windows Mobile 6, why not do the same with Apple, admittedly a “new kid on the block” as far as smartphones go, but, the new kid with the coolest toys that all the other kids want to hang out with.

Virtual Blackberry iPhone