Research In Motionand Information Appliance Associates (IAA) today announced a licensing agreement whereby RIM will offer PocketMac for BlackBerry to Mac users, free of charge. PocketMac for BlackBerry is a desktop application that enables Mac users to synchronize data between their BlackBerry devices and Macintosh applications including core OS X version 10.4 "Tiger" applications and Microsoft Entourage.

"The worldwide popularity of Mac OS X is driving the creation of many exciting new products and significant growth in the Apple development community," said Ron Okamoto, Apple's Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations. "We're thrilled that IAA and RIM have collaborated to better support mobile Mac users with easy-to-use BlackBerry synchronization."

RIM has licensed the complete version of PocketMac for BlackBerry from IAA and the companies plan ongoing product development collaboration. PocketMac for BlackBerry synchronizes the email, contacts, calendar, tasks and notes of Microsoft Entourage, OS X's Address Book and iCal, Now Contact and Now Up-to-Date, DayLite, and Stickies, among other applications. 

This easy-to-access solution for Macintosh synchronization is expected to be available as a free download at blackberry.com beginning in February.