Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Research In Motion Ltd. agreed to put Microsoft Corp.'s Internet search engine on BlackBerrys, giving the software maker a foothold on the top-selling e-mail phone in the U.S.

Microsoft's Live Search will be available on BlackBerrys this year, the companies said in an e-mailed statement today. BlackBerry customers can use the search engine to find nearby businesses and attractions.

The deal may help Microsoft prevent competitors Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. from staking out a dominant share of mobile- phone searches, a market projected to increase almost tenfold over the next three years. This week, AT&T Inc. said it chose Yahoo as its default search engine for handsets.

Google and Yahoo eclipse Microsoft in Internet searches through personal computers, controlling more than 80 percent in the U.S. Advertising spending on mobile-phone searches may grow to $2.35 billion by 2011, from about $243.7 million this year, according to researcher EMarketer Inc. in New York.

Research In Motion expects to release the BlackBerry Bold, an updated version of the e-mail device that runs on faster wireless networks, early next month, Co-Chief Executive Officer James Balsillie said. The device will work with AT&T Inc.'s wireless network, Balsillie said at a conference in San Francisco.

IPhone Challenge

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company is counting on the Bold to steer corporate e-mail users away from Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co.'s Instinct, which both have touch screens. The Bold may bring in 15 percent of Research In Motion's revenue and earnings in the six months ending in February, Peter Misek, an analyst at Canaccord Adams Inc. in Toronto, said in July.

``Our market share is growing fast,'' Balsillie, 47, said in an interview. ``We've been investing heavily in our capacity, in our research, in our product pipeline, in our engineers.''

Research In Motion introduced a flip model of its Pearl handset yesterday. Balsillie said there are more opportunities to create different versions of the BlackBerry tailored to specific customer groups and that Internet services are ``tremendous growth areas.''

Research In Motion also said today it will work with News Corp.'s MySpace to create a version of the social-networking site for the BlackBerry. The service, available next month, will let users send messages to each other and upload photos.

The company also formed a partnership with TiVo Inc. to allow people to schedule television recordings from their BlackBerrys. The software will be available later this year.

Research In Motion had more than half of the market for so- called smartphones last quarter, research firm IDC says.

Research In Motion advanced $4.71, or 4.5 percent, to $109.32 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have fallen 3.6 percent this year.

Microsoft rose 90 cents to $27.34, while TiVo added 6 cents to $7.88. News Corp. advanced 31 cents to $14.38 on the New York Stock Exchange.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net; Vivek Shankar in San Francisco at vshankar3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 11, 2008 17:13 EDT