October 24, 2007

RIM Introduces Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones

New software application runs natively on BlackBerry smartphones and provides an unparalleled mobile experience to users of the popular Facebook social utility

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment 2007, Booth 1033 – October 24, 2007 – Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today launched Facebook® for BlackBerry® Smartphones, an exciting new BlackBerry software application that enables fast, streamlined and optimized mobile access to the popular Facebook social utility using a BlackBerry smartphone. The application leverages the push-based BlackBerry system architecture and Facebook Platform to create an unparalleled mobile experience for Facebook users.

Mike Lazaridis, founder of Research In Motion, will join Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook, to formally unveil and demonstrate the Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones application today at the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment show in San Francisco. T-Mobile USA has been selected to be the first carrier to provide the new software application to its customers.

With the Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones application, Facebook users can wirelessly send and view messages, photos, pokes and Wall posts. The rich, native application goes beyond browser-based access, automatically pushing notifications to the user’s BlackBerry smartphone as friends and colleagues send notes, Wall posts or pokes. The application allows users to take a photo, upload it to the site with captions and tags; quickly and easily invite friends; manage events; manage photo albums; and manage their status while on the go.

“Facebook is one of the fastest growing web destinations among BlackBerry smartphone users and it has become an important element in the evolving fabric of personal communications,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “Facebook and RIM share a vision for enhanced mobile communications and social networking based on open, standards-based platforms and this has allowed us to produce a rich mobile application for Facebook users that leverages the push-based architecture, multimedia features and industry-leading usability of the BlackBerry solution.”

“T-Mobile is focused on helping people effortlessly connect with those who matter most by providing our customers with meaningful ways to stick together,” said Leslie Grandy, vice president, Product Development, T-Mobile USA. “We are pleased to be the first wireless carrier in the U.S. selected to offer this innovative service that gives customers another compelling way to stay in touch.”

"The worlds of wireless communication and social utilities, such as Facebook, continue to converge. As people look for new ways to stay connected and network with peers and colleagues, true mobile access to these types of utilities can only become more popular," said Jill Aldort, Sr. Analyst, Consumer Research at Yankee Group. "Even at this nascent stage of the market, 19% of adult consumers who access social networks on their PCs also regularly access these same sites on their mobile phones."

Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones, which will be available as a free download*, makes it faster, easier and more convenient for users to stay wirelessly connected with their Facebook friends and colleagues. The application allows users to:

Receive notifications and messages automatically – Leveraging the BlackBerry platform's push-based architecture, notifications and messages are automatically sent to the user; the user can also set a unique alert (vibration and/or ringtone) for Facebook related content
Quickly access essential features – Convenient onscreen icons let users quickly change their Status, upload a photo, add a friend, poke someone, write on a Wall, or send a message. Users can also quickly scroll through messages and notifications as they do with email messages
Invite friends to join Facebook and accept new friend requests
Quickly snap and post pictures along with a caption and tags – The photo upload feature is also integrated with the BlackBerry smartphone camera and photo management applications on the smartphone
View the Status of friends
Read, compose and reply to messages even while offline – If the user is out of wireless coverage, messages are queued until the user returns to an area of coverage

Facebook users will be able to download the application at Facebook | Welcome to Facebook! from their PC or BlackBerry smartphone beginning later today.

* Wireless data charges may apply. Check with wireless service provider.

sweet. what about a release date?

later today...isnt very exact

You're looking for an actual time?
Perhaps you ask a bit too much.

Go to Facebook | Welcome to Facebook! from the blackberry and you can download the application.

However, this does not seem to work for Nextel

you asked for a date not a time

it will be released in exactly 631243 seconds

is that good enough?

sprat - what is the source URL of your article? It's a bit of copyright violation to post the entire article (instead of excerpts) as well as not providing attribution. This looks like the Yahoo! article here:

RIM Introduces Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

...but not exactly.

yeah it is live now for sure...downloading now

The Press Release is on RIM's website. There's a link to it from the home page on Research In Motion

Research In Motion

It's there and it works. The bit I'm not entirely convinced by is the need to store a certificate to auth my handset across to FBook. Why - whats wrong with just luser name and password.

If you try to view a user profile it fires up the browser which is a bit tedious.

eh I am not impressed with it to be honest....at least it is more then an icon like the major league baseball thing was...oh well

yeah...cuz im really trying to pass it off as my own article

relax - nobody said anything about your intentions or made any sort of intimations, I was stating that there's a protocol for posting news articles. The inclusion of a link to the source article lets us investigate and go off on our own, merely cutting and pasting an article with no source is doing a disservice to the readers.

The application is nice and what it does, it does pretty well.

My major issues with the application is your cannot view/edit profiles INSIDE of the application. It launches the Browser.

I'm getting a "There was an error contacting Facebook" error. Any ideas? Corporate security settings?

This is actually really really cool. I was not a user before this but i just signed up. I can't believe i can take a pic with my 8320 and a second later upload it to facebook. I like how it is more in depth into the blackberry os like blackberry messenger.

I wonder if all my friends have facebook now.

Anyone having problems with the 8703e and Verizon for the app?

I got "your wireless provider does not allow access to facebook"

hah, strange. i am on VZW, and got the app working. Didnt do anything with it. Just clicked download. then accepted and clicked 'ok' when anything popped up.....

hey the new facebook app is out for blackberry devices

ota download Facebook - Overview

i havent been able to make it work, can you guys post your success with it, and also does it work though wifi?

Mine's working like a charm. Thinking of switching to a Curve just so I can upload pictures from the camera.

hah, well this might be the problem.... I read the fine print. It looks like you need OS 4.2 (naturally).

Of course, being an 8703e user, I'm S.O.L. and I'll leave it at that.

I'm with Verizon, on an 8830 and OS 4.2. Can't figure out what the problem is.

same thing here. i get a "there was an error contacting facebook" error msg.

anyone else have any luck?

works for me, and its saweeet!!

The OTA download worked seamlessly for me, and everything in the app works with no errors.

yea it works..it is so hottt..i Love it...nice app

ya, i was able to download OTA as well without any issues.....but i can't seem to log on. i've double and triple checked my log in info too.

btw, i like your name! purepinoy here! where you from?

It's too bad it launches the browser to view profiles. And the message box doesnt have all my old messages in it. Only those I have sent from that program.

Facebook - Overview takes me to a generic information page about the app, how are you starting the OTA download?

works for me also.

not as great as other have said. You cannot even view/edit profiles w/in the application itself.

go to Facebook | Welcome to Facebook! from your your blackberry browser. An option to download the app OTA will show up.

From your blackberry, go to Facebook | Welcome to Facebook!, log-in, and there should be a link to download the new app.

^^ thanks to you both, I actually just tried that after posting! Downloading now..

Yes I have tried it and it works great. Very good!!!!

once i launched the app, i was able to log-in with no problems. might want to make sure you're hitting all the right keys when entering your password (i.e. caps or symbols in your password)

or try deleting and redownload...

<--- Seattle

Yea it works great!!!!!!! double sweetttttttttt

Now for the myspace app

I've merged a couple of threads on the same subject to this one main thread.

Only issue I have is that I cant seem to search for and add new people with the app, works great otherwise!

Whoops. I thought it belong in the software thread. my bad!!

On a side note. It looks like RIM went on app release frenzy.!!