Shortly after banning the popular Kik Messenger application from its mobile software store, Research In Motion has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the developers of the app.

Kik Messenger is a free instant chat program that was available on BlackBerry devices for two weeks, during which time it amassed mroe than a million users. Kik provided many of the same features as RIM’s in-house BlackBerry Messenger software, and was quickly made available on iPhone and Android devices as well.

“RIM became aware of a number of issues and customer concerns regarding the Kik app and service. Following discussions with Kik, the app was removed from BlackBerry App World on November 12,” the BlackBerry manufacturer said in a statement. “Upon further investigation, RIM concluded that Kik had breached contractual obligations. Based on the broad scope and seriousness of the issues and concerns, RIM terminated its agreements with Kik and withdrew RIM’s support for Kik’s service.”

Kik CEO, Ted Livingston, who previously worked for RIM as a systems engineer and technical product co-ordinator, acknowledged that his program was similar to BlackBerry Messenger, but said he hoped it wasn’t banned for competitive reasons. He declined to comment on the patent infringement lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday in the Federal Court of Canada.

Dell has launched its Android-based smartphone device, the Streak, in Canada, at a cost of $549.99 when purchased outright.

The new phone is advertised as being “for use on Rogers network only,” and will likely be available through the carrier within the next few days. It is expected to sell for $149.99 on a three-year Rogers Wireless contract.

The Dell Streak features an impressive 5-inch touchscreen display, 1-GHz Snapdragon processor, 5-megapixel digital camera and up to 32GB of memory with a microSD card, as well as built-in Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth. It will initially come with Google Android 1.6, but will be upgraded to Android 2.1 by the end of this year, which will enable Adobe Flash 10.1, along with video chat and other capabilities.

American hardware giant, Dell, has announced plans to provide its employees with its in-house Venue Pro smartphone, replacing the currently-standard BlackBerry device for the purpose of wireless email communications.

All 25,000 Dell employees who now use BlackBerry devices for work-related purposes will receive Windows Phone 7-based Venue Pro handsets with voice and data plans. The program is expected to reduce the company’s mobile communication budget by 25%. Most of these savings will be achieved by shutting down the BlackBerry servers currently used for employee email.

But Dell’s decision to dump the BlackBerry likely has more to do with image than cost savings, according to Gartner analyst, Leif-Olof Wallin. Now that the PC maker is in the business of making smartphones, “it would be kind of embarrassing to have your own sales staff working around with a product from a competitor,” Wallin commented.

Canadian mobile phone giant, Rogers Wireless, is planning to introduce a new and improved version of the Palm Pre smartphone capable of running on its HSPA mobile broadband network.

Until now, the original Palm Pre has been available in Canada through Bell Mobility, operating on that carrier’s EV-DO Rev A network. The ‘Pre 2,’ however, will feature faster ‘3G+’ data speeds.

Other improvements include a faster (1-GHz) processor and webOS 2.0 operating system. The Pre 2’s other features, including a 480×320 display and 16GB of built-in memory, are essentially the same as those of the Bell device.

Rogers Wireless will launch the Pre 2 on November 9, at a cost of $100 on a three-year contract, according to the Canadian tech blog, Mobile Syrup.

Research In Motion has officially unveiled its latest BlackBerry smartphone — the Bold 9780 — which is expected to be launched in numerous countries next month.

Like the Bold 9700, the new phone will feature a 2.44-inch display, as well as built-in 3G and Wi-Fi capabilities. Improvements will include an upgraded 5-megapixel digital camera with image stabilization, along with more memory (512MB, expandable to 32GB).

The Bold 9780 will also come equipped with RIM’s new BlackBerry 6.0 operating system, which features social networking integration, support for Adobe Flash 10.1, and an application for viewing YouTube videos.

“The new model builds on the highly refined experience that BlackBerry Bold users already know and love and delivers a wide range of enhancements including a rich news user interface, a fast and powerful WebKit-based browser, broadly improved communications and multimedia capabilities, an incredibly useful Universal Search feature and a high-quality 5 megapixel camera,” commented RIM’s vice president of product management, Carlo Chiarello.

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 will be available in the U.S. through T-Mobile for $129.99 on a two-year contract. Bell Mobility is rumoured to be launching the device in Canada, although availability and pricing details have yet to be announced.