Not the fruit, but the wireless smartphone that has become indispensable to users across the globe.

The chief executive officer of Ballarat start up company EnterMo says a BlackBerry compatible product developed by his firm will take the device to a whole new market.

Once the preserve of white collar workers _ for whom its instant email facility was apparently so addictive a new word, `crackberry', was coined _ the lightweight EnterMoCase provides a hard protective covering for the BlackBerry

Curve and 8800 series models.

Combined with features such as signature capture and barcode options for 1D and 2D scanning, the company hopes the EnterMoCase will put the powerful smartphone into the hands of workers in the field.

It is also upgradable, meaning new model BlackBerrys can fit into the cases for some years to come.

The project has taken 22 months to date, and while there were some anxious moments last year, the past few months have convinced the company it is on a winner.

Last month, they attended the Wireless Enterprises Symposium, a BlackBerry product conference in Florida, where the case won rave reviews from delegates.

"We won the best hardware design award for the year as a third-party designed hardware product," Mr Cherry said.

On the back of that momentum, and support of financial backers, the former builder and developer will again take his baby to the world over the coming months, with expansion providing the next challenge for the company.

"We will do a $5 -$10 million raise (with investors) now, and make ourselves worth $35 million in the next few months off two things: deposits for trial unit orders and real orders.

"With those two things we will raise that money very easily."

And while the world beckons, Mr Cherry said the company was firmly Ballarat based, with capital from start-up investors and many key staff for the project coming from the city.

"Why Ballarat? Because you know who you can trust. The other reason is why not? Yeah, we'll have to be everywhere but we can be everywhere off this brilliant technology."