Sybase subsidiary iAnywhere today announced a solution that will add secure mobile instant messaging (IM) and presence to its Information Anywhere mobile e-mail platform. IAnywhere's new mobile IM system will ship by the second quarter and will also be available as a standalone offering. Get ready for some mobile IM on your BlackBerry.The new mobile IM system is designed to work with smartphones running on the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm, and Symbian operating systems. The iAnywhere IM solution will support existing enterprise-grade IM systems including IBM Lotus Sametime, Jabber XCP, and Microsoft Live Communications Server. The technology also supports public IM networks via XMPP such as Jabber and Google Talk.

Users can set the system to notify them of new IMs with custom alerts, including audio and vibrate. And IT managers, don't worry about SOX compliance, the iAnywhere solution is designed to archive content from any approved device over a set period of time.

Mobile instant messaging emerged as a consumer wireless trend at the end of 2004 and took off with users in 2005. Businesses are now looking to add IM and presence to their smartphones as they move beyond e-mail to better utilize their smartphone deployments.