By Scott Moritz, writer

Research in Motion (RIMM) is facing a delay with the introduction of its new hotly anticipated 3G BlackBerry phone for AT&T (ATT).

The release of the phone, apparently named Meteor, has been pushed to as late as August, from the planned June launch, say people close to the companies. The reason for the delay isn’t clear, but people close to the companies say AT&T had concerns about call quality.

Some of these people speculate however that AT&T may be using a tech glitch as an excuse to avoid having two competing 3G smartphones launch at the same time. Apple’s (AAPL) new iPhone is expected to debut in June, and analysts have speculated that the release will likely coincide with the one-year anniversary of the original iPhone, which is June 27.

AT&T declined to comment. A RIM spokeswoman said in an e-mail that the company does not discuss unannounced products or comment on “rumors and speculation.”

The delay of the new BlackBerry comes at a particularly sensitive time for RIM. As product cycles and phone fashions go, the current crop of BlackBerries – the Curve, the Pearl, etc. – are due for a refresh as demand slows. Among the big things expected from RIM was the first 3G version of BlackBerry, being called Meteor or the 8900. It is a black phone with a silver metal edge, curved corners and a flatter Qwerty keyboard than the namesake bumpy berry-skin keypad.

A new product delay from June to August would mean fewer phone shipments and lower subscriber growth than some may be expecting in the company’s fiscal second quarter ending Aug. 30.

AT&T and Verizon (VZ) represent about 40% of RIM’s new subscriber growth, according to an estimate by TD Newcrest analyst Chris Umiastowski, who recently cut his fiscal first-quarter subscriber estimates for RIM based on expectations of slower sales. Umiastowski now expects full-year RIM subscriber gains of 10.4 million, down from a 11.5 million prior forecast.

Umiamstowski has not based his estimates on RIM’s 3G phone introductions.

RIM is also expected to introduce a touch-screen 3G BlackBerry 9000 later in the year that is aimed directly at the iPhone.

By Michael Copeland

It’s not your 15-year-old daughter’s Internet anymore. On the first full day of the Web 2.0 Expo, that more than anything seemed to be the message from the conference room floor.

Tech stalwarts like Oracle (ORCL), IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT) were showing off technologies that bring elements of the consumer Internet to the workplace. Startups that last year might have been flogging a consumer video service or photo sharing site, instead were demonstrating web-based technologies to develop better Flash sites for business, a cheaper CRM software or an easier way to collaborate on projects. Dubbed Enterprise 2.0, the movement has been gathering steam for some time, but at the Web 2.0 Expo, business seems to have at last eclipsed the consumer Web.

The usual laptop-covered-in-stickers crowd was present as well, but for the most part this is not a gathering of people breathless over the latest Facebook app or keen on launching a widget that makes it easy to find where your favorite band is playing.

Part of that is by design: The companies that can afford to set up in the Expo hall are companies with money, like IBM, Microsoft, Adobe (ADBE) and others. But that itself is a sign of where Web 2.0 is heading. Last year, consumer Web companies had cash to burn. This year, many of the darlings of the social Web, startups that nailed funding at lofty valuations over the last 12 to 18 months, are holding onto what cash they have in anticipation of tougher times ahead.

It has been harder to monetize the social Web than many have thought, and buyers have become harder to come by, especially at the prices many Web2 companies thought they could command. As a result, companies are switching business models like spent horses. “People are realizing that advertising is not good for everything, that it’s not going to make them the next Google,” says Raju Vegesna, an engineer with online applications developer Zoho. “They are starting to get worried.”

Easy for Vegesna to say – Zoho is going directly after the business world, and makes money from subscriptions for its Web-based software. There is no question, though that smart entrepreneurs are starting to see things the way the Zoho team does, and creating applications and services that cater to business. That’s the good news for the corporate world. It’s about to get a slew of new tools that are informed by the best of the consumer world, but that pack the scaleability, security and customization that business users require. We’ll highlight the best over the next two days. It’s enough to make a 15-year-old girl jealous.

Microsoft (MSFT) signaled its ready to play hardball with Yahoo (YHOO) in its bid to acquire the Internet giant, and antitrust regulators are scrutinizing a trial advertising partnership that Google (GOOG) and Yahoo recently struck.

Microsoft put some substance behind its threat to take its three-month-old buyout offer to Yahoo shareholders by naming 13 people as potential candidates to the company’s board, according to Thursday’s The Wall Street Journal.

The list includes former Nextel Partners CEO John Chapple; Edward Meyer, former chief of Grey Global Group; Jaynie Studenmund, the former chief operating officer at Overture Services, a company Yahoo acquired a few years ago; and former Adelphia Chief financial officer Vanessa Wittman, the Journal reported.

Microsoft’s tougher stance comes amid news reports that the Justice Department is looking into Yahoo’s outsourcing of some of its advertising to Google. The companies’ two-week trial ended Wednesday. Yahoo has said it involved about 3% of its search results.

Yahoo has been looking for ways to reduce the cost of operating its search service and, in an effort to thwart Microsoft, to demonstrate it can thrive as a standalone business. But the cooperation between the No.1 and No.2 two search engine shops immediately raised anticompetitive flags when the pact was announced earlier this month.

Google says it “informed the Justice Department before we launched this test, and we have been responsive to their questions about it,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Yahoo said it too had given the Justice Department a heads up prior to the test, according to the Times report.

Microsoft has given Yahoo until Saturday to come up with a counter proposal or answer to its $43 billion takeover offer.