RIM’s BlackBerry 10 Ready Program Is Attracting Converts

If you’re looking for a good barometer of enterprise interest in Research In Motion’s forthcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system, the company’s BlackBerry 10 Ready Program is one place to check.

With its offers of free BB10 training and the opportunity to easily upgrade existing BlackBerry Enterprise Server licenses, the program was designed to woo RIM’s bread-and-butter customers to its new platform. And it appears to be doing just that.

RIM says that more than 1,600 businesses in North America have registered for BlackBerry 10 Ready since it was announced in December — among them, government agencies, Fortune 500 companies and universities. And, according to Bryan Lee, senior director of enterprise accounts at RIM, BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10 is currently in beta testing with some 130 major government agencies and corporations.

“We are very enthused by the engagement and response of our customer base,” Lee told Reuters. “In terms of verticals and segments, we are seeing good activity levels across all of our segments from small- and mid-market to large enterprises.”

That’s encouraging news, and it bodes well for RIM, which is struggling to regain traction in the enterprise market it once dominated. The company is scheduled to debut its first BlackBerry 10 device at an event on Jan. 30.