Research In Motion should keep its lead in the enterprise market against Apple's iPhone with its soon-to-be-released Blackberry Bold,  Pacific Crest Securities wrote Wednesday in a report.

“We believe the improvements to the Bold will continue to make BlackBerry devices the first choice among business users,” the report said.

What makes the Bold more business user-friendly is not revolutionary features, but its well-known tactile keyboard that makes typing much easier–especially if you have sausage fingers–compared with the iPhone touch screen keyboard.

But according to the report, the 3G iPhone remains more powerful on the multimedia front.

“The Bold is much less user-friendly in managing an iTunes library. Both videogames and the Internet experience are superior on the iPhone.”

The patented touch screen technology, the size of the screen, and the application store give Apple’s second-generation smartphone some hard-to-beat features in terms of multimedia experience.

The report describes the Bold as an evolutionary phone, while the iPhone is often described as a revolutionary phone.

At $300, the Bold, which is rumored to be launched in the U.S. on October 2, after being delayed for months, is unlikely to attract new subscribers and instead will likely be limited to those upgrading from previous devices, like the popular Curve or 8800 models.

“We believe that consumers who do not have their phones paid for by their companies may find the $300 subsidized price tag difficult to swallow,” the report said.

The Bold is not much different from its BalckBerry predecessors and is slightly improved.

Among the “incrementally positive” improvements, the report points to the screen's better resolution (480 x 320). The full-HTML web browser is another improvement compared with the WAP experience offered by previous generations BlackBerry devices.

The Bold does not drop calls as much as the 3G iPhone does, but it appears to have a similar problem in maintaining a 3G connection, the analyst noted. Just like for the 3G iPhone, it is unclear if the problem comes from the handset, exclusive service provider AT&T, or from a combination of the two.

RIM remains the No. 1 seller of smart phones with 16 million subscribers worldwide, followed by Apple, which has sold an estimated 9 million devices since June last year.

Pacific Crest Securities makes a market in RIM shares.