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Though the majority of RIM's customers still fall into the business category, the mob-e-mail and U.S. smartphone leader has taken several steps towards consumers over the last year. Today, at CTIA Wireless in San Francisco, RIM took another step in that direction when it introduced a free application to deliver "fast, streamlined and optimized mobile access" to Facebook from a BlackBerry.

Facebook, the number two most frequently used social networking site, behind market leader MySpace, it now the seventh most visited site on the Web overall.

RIM President & co-CEO Mike Lazaridis put the company's interest in Facebook this way: "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."

The new Facebook application isn't browser based, but runs directly on a BlackBerry to better make use of RIM's BlackBerry architecture.

With it, Facebook users can wirelessly send and view messages, photos, pokes and Wall posts. And, as with BlackBerry-based e-mail, Facebook notifications are pushed to the user's smartphone. It also allows users to take a picture, upload it to Facebook with captions and tags; send out invitations to friends; as well as manage events, photo albums, and status.

By giving its customers direct access to Facebook RIM is taking advantage of the growing demands of social network users for access when away from their desktop

"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," according to Yankee Group Consumer Research Sr. Analyst Jill Aldort. "Even at this nascent stage of the market, 19 percent of adult consumers who access social networks on their PCs also regularly access these same sites on their mobile phones."

Facebook for BlackBerry will only be available to T-Mobile USA customers at first.