Canadian gadget maker Research In Motion (RIM) continued to dominate the headlines this week, with a late announcement that it has teamed up with MySpace and Microsoft to further strengthen its presence in the consumer market.

Late Thursday, the vendor announced that it has struck a deal with social network MySpace, to develop an integrated application for its BlackBerry devices.

RIM said that MySpace for BlackBerry will provide instant, push-based messaging to its users, a compelling feature given that one of the more annoying aspects of many social networks is that they require users to use yet another platform to send and receive messages. Vodafone came up with a novel solution to this problem earlier this week, perhaps demonstrating that mobile operators are in a prime position to solve this dilemma.

In related news, RIM has also struck a deal with Microsoft to make Live Search the search engine of choice within the BlackBerry browser. Users will also be able to use Live Search to perform contextual, location-sensitive searches or look for nearby points of interest from inside the BlackBerry Maps application.

Both announcements will strengthen RIM’s drive into the consumer space. Earlier this week, the Canadian firm continued its pitch to consumers, with the unveiling of its first ever clamshell device, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220.