Research In Motion (RIM) has announced a version of its Enterprise Server aimed at cost-conscious businesses, an overhauled internet browser, and a call for a data economy.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is free server software that synchronizes BlackBerry smartphones with Microsoft Exchange or Windows Small Business Server.

It will be provided free of charge to address two key market opportunities.

First, RIM argues that free software offers economical advantages to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that desire the security and manageability of BlackBerry Enterprise Server but don't require all of its advanced features.

Second, the free software provides a cost-effective solution that enables IT departments to meet the growing demand from employees to connect their personal BlackBerry smartphones to their work e-mail.

RIM noted the new server software utilizes the same security architecture found in BlackBerry Enterprise Server. For IT administrators, Enterprise Server Express offers the ability to run on the same physical or virtual server as the Microsoft mail server or on its own server.

Unveils WebKit internet browser to compete with iPhone

RIM has also unveiled an overhauled internet browser for its devices today to attract more non-business customers.

"Today we are announcing an exciting new offering that further expands the market opportunity for the BlackBerry platform," said Mike Lazaridis, co-chief executive officer and inventor of the BlackBerry. Lazaridis showed the new WebKit browser at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

RIM bought browser-design firm Torch Mobile Inc last year and has increased the number of web patents it filed with the U.S. Patent Office fivefold since 2007, according to data from the agency.

The WebKit browser should be available on BlackBerrys this year.

Lazaridis: iPhone risks data network collapse

Lazaridis is calling for an economy in smartphone application design, setting its sights on Apple’s thousands of developers.  Lazaridis points out that carriers in US urban areas already face problems maintaining their network in the face of the intense demand of the new data-centric smartphone generation.

"Manufacturers had better start building more efficient applications and more efficient services. There is no real way to get around this," he said from Barcelona. “If we don't start conserving that bandwidth, in the next few years we are going to run into a capacity crunch. You are already experiencing the capacity crunch in the United States."

Blackberry users take up one third the network space of other browser users, easing a coming capacity crunch spurred by smartphone use, he said.

"Typical operators are likely to find their available spectrum completely consumed in the next three to five years," Lazaridis said, citing a report by Hood River, Oregon-based researcher Peter Rysavy.

The industry needs to take data volumes into account in its charges, increasing incentives for efficiency, the co-CEO said.