Research In Motion (RIM) today introduced BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express – free new server software that wirelessly and securely synchronizes BlackBerry smartphones with Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Windows Small Business Server.

I’m a little confused about this announcement today by Dynamic Business, given that there has been a ‘free’ version of the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) around for a while now. First it was called Blackberry Enterprise Server Express, then renamed to Blackberry Enterprise Server Professional, and now we seem to be back to Blackberry Enterprise Server Express. Technical details are a little slim, even on the official Blackberry Page, so it’s hard to piece together what’s so ‘new’ about this. The one bit however that does stand out is that this version is supported on SBS 2008, a definite improvement over the previous (?) version of the professional/express edition.

The product isn’t available until later this quarter, and we’re yet to see what ‘free’ actually means in this instance. One can only hope that RIM are pushing back against competitive platforms such as Windows Mobile and iPhone (which require no additional server software to function), and therefore free truly will mean free.