New MySpace app shatters record for RIM downloads

More than 400,000 BlackBerry users have downloaded the new MySpace application, according to Research In Motion Ltd., shattering the record for applications in their first week of release.
The offering, which was released Nov. 13, saw users send and receive more than 15 million messages, RIM said, and change their mood and status more than 2 million times.
“We established an innovative and collaborative partnership with RIM to address a key desire of consumers to have greater mobile connectivity and interaction with their friends and the global community at large,” said MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe. “This record shows just how much of a force in the mobile consumer space RIM and MySpace have become.”
Indeed, the figures appear to validate both RIM’s effort to expand beyond enterprise users to more mainstream consumers and MySpace’s impressive move into wireless. The Canadian developer is looking to more entertainment-focused handsets and applications as it squares off against Apple’s iPhone and other new multimedia devices, while MySpace and Facebook are leveraging large online followings to trounce mobile social networking communities, , according to a recent study from ABI Research.