Blackberry lolly: RIM is the fastest-growing company in the world

In fact, lIke most "overnight successes" RIM has been beavering away building its brand for years but the company's products are, at last, being taken up by the general public (business executives have been addicted to their "Crackberries" for many moons) and sales are rocketing.

So, ithe reality is that RIM has been gaining momentum for some years now but, in a direct reflection of the continuing capacity of the Americans to pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist, Fortune has, until this year, chosen not to include in its annual "Growth List" any companies outside the US. It's a bit like the so-called "World Series" in baseball - where the "world" consists of US teams playing one another.

It's just as well that Fortune has, albeit belatedly, recognised that there is life and commerce beyond the frontiers of the continental United States. The tectonic plates of the global economy are moving and the US dominance is on the decline.