RIM Outpaces Rivals to Lead Fortune Fastest-Growing List

This approach has paid great dividends. For instance, when Verizon

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[VZ  Loading...      ()   ] needed a strong competitor for the iPhone it sought out RIM to develop the Storm, which introduced a sensory touchscreen keypad. Verizon provided a generous subsidy for the device and put a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign behind it. Though early reviews were mixed, the Storm has become the third-best-selling smartphone since its debut last year.

RIM believes one way to continue growing in the crowded U.S. market is to develop targeted products for specific groups of customers. On July 27, for example, RIM announced the Curve 8520, a new BlackBerry aimed at social media maniacs (read: tweens) with buttons that allow users to upload media directly to YouTube and Facebook. It went on sale this month at Wal-Mart

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[WMT  Loading...      ()   ] for just $48.88 with a two-year T-Mobile contract.

Balsillie and Lazaridis, however, think that their biggest growth opportunity may lie outside the U.S.  Foreign consumers are only beginning to embrace smartphones in large numbers. And Finnish phone giant Nokia, long the global powerhouse, has been losing share rapidly.

So RIM has begun positioning itself in foreign markets, forming partnerships with 475 carriers in 160 countries in recent years.

"The thought that Latin America and Western Europe could someday be like North America in terms of market penetration gets us very, very excited," says Balsillie.

But the act of going global alone won't be enough for RIM to succeed in the long run. Just as it once made e-mail in a phone into its Killer App, the company must adapt to a world with thousands of killer apps.

"What you carry on your belt is now your MP3 player, will be your plasma TV, is your social-networking machine, is your Internet terminal, your camera, your personal navigation device," says Balsillie.

More and more, phones are becoming devices for users to download the software programs, or applications, they want. (As Apple's TV commercials promise: "There's an app for that!") No single company can come up with the massive portfolio of applications that will please consumers, however. That would be like asking Wal-Mart to make all the products it also sells.

And that's why smartphone makers are trying so hard to woo software developers to make the programs that will run on their phones. The market for this software is relatively small now, but it's growing quickly. Juniper Research estimates sales of mobile applications could hit $25 billion in 2014, up from $7 billion last year.

RIM has long had one of the largest enterprise developer communities, but more recently it has worked aggressively to court a wider group by doing what it does best: partnering with them. That challenge falls to RIM's vice president of business, marketing, and alliances, Jeff McDowell.

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Though his division brings in only a tiny portion of the company's revenues, Balsillie and Lazaridis shower him with attention.

"I talk to Mike at least once a day, and Jim usually four times," says McDowell. "I can show up at Jim's office anytime he's in and he'll see me."

McDowell oversees the BlackBerry Alliance Program, which offers its 1,700 partners dedicated teams of RIM developers, technical expertise, and marketing support. Last fall the company held its first developer conference in Silicon Valley, a packed event in which it gave developers insight into plans for new products as well as one-on-one instruction and a chance to hobnob with the company's most prestigious engineers.

And in April the company launched BlackBerry App World, a virtual storefront that collects most BlackBerry applications in one central location. Developers keep 80% of what they charge for their programs. (Apple offers developers 70%.)

"Our objective is to help developers make money," explains McDowell. "That creates the buzz, and then I don't have to worry about the benefits to RIM."

Ultimately, though, Balsillie and Lazaridis know they'll need more than buzz. The challenge is to anticipate the fickle tastes of a new consumer market. And in their own pragmatic way, they're confident that they're up for the task.

"We don't just throw spaghetti at the wall and see what works," says Lazaridis, a touch defensively. "We have a lot of faith in our own capabilities, and we do a lot of research into what people want and don't want. Our products just keep getting better and better and better."

With the iPhone as a competitor, they need to be.