IBM have released additional Lotus software fro Research in Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry platform, moving in to the Web 2.0 social networking applications.

IBM already offers core Lotus software that includes Notes based e-mail, portals, dashboards, messaging, calendaring and instant messaging, the company is adding Blackberry client for IBM Lotus connections, which is IBM’s social software for businesses.

With forecasters predicting that by 2012 there will be more than 800 million worldwide mobile network users (its stands at 82 million currently), you can see why IBM decided to get the ball rolling with this release. This year IBM said that more people in the world will have a mobile device than a landline telephone and predicted that there will be 1 billion mobile web users by 2011.

Bob Picciano, IBM general manager of the Lotus software said, “As the world enters the ‘Era of the Mobile Web,’ mobile devices like BlackBerry are outnumbering TVs, credit cards and PCs, and are becoming increasingly critical to business operations for companies of all sizes globally.”

Commenting on IBM’s release, Tony Rizzo, director of mobile software analysis for The 451 Group said, “The demand for social networking derived business networking is nascent still but will, in short order, become huge — very important as we go into 2010 and the Facebook generation becomes a more direct part of the workforce.”

He added, “Lotus owns about 48 percent of all corporate seats in terms of e-mail, etc. So it plays a huge enterprise role relative to where mobility is headed. All of the announcements with RIM are critical for IBM to maintain ongoing growth on the Lotus end.”

In addition to BlackBerry Client for Lotus Connections, IBM and RIM added IBM’s Cognos 8 Go Mobile business intelligence software to its lineup. IBM says is the industry’s first business intelligence solution designed specifically for the BlackBerry platform and that it provides personalized secure business information via dashboard-style reports.

In related news, IBM and RIM also announced that IBM has added new hosting capabilities so that IBM can support the BlackBerry platform. IBM has joined the BlackBerry System Integrator (SI) Alliance Program, and will expand its portfolio of Managed Wireless Services for the BlackBerry platform.

Ray Barnard, vice president and CIO of Fluor Corporation said, “In today’s business world, BlackBerry is as essential to our organization as network connectivity, phone and e-mail. At Fluor, we count on BlackBerry to speed our decision making, help solve problems and improve execution.”

“We count on IBM to deliver this essential service and to collaborate with our business partners to innovate on new mobile applications that further our competitive advantage,” he added.