Are you a Mac user? Are you a Blackberry user? RIM has just decided that they don’t hate you anymore. They’ve announced BlackBerry Desktop for Mac, scheduled for release in September (hopefully they mean 2009.)

Third party syncing solutions have existed for quite some time for the mac, notably Pocket Mac (purchased by RIM) and The Missing Sync. Unfortunately they’ve behaved more like workarounds and hacks than solutions, causing almost as many problems as they solved. Here’s RIM’s official feature list:

• Sync your iTunes® playlists, calendars, contacts, notes and tasks
• Add/Remove applications
• Update your device when new software becomes available
• Backup and restore your device data with such features like automatically scheduled backups and optional encryption (security is #1 as always…)
• Manage multiple devices

I’m most looking forward to backing up and upgrading BlackBerry software without having to resort to using a PC. This software, if RIM delivers what they’ve promised will make our customers’ lives easier and enable us to work more quickly and efficiently for them. Combined with Apple’s Mac OS 10.6 native exchange support, life is about to get much easier for our Blackberry Enterprise customers too. Here’s to progress!