Blackberry Tour Announced - RIM Appealing to Consumers and Corporate

Research in Motion on Tuesday announced the next in its acclaimed series of ultra-successful business phones, The Blackberry Tour.

Sticking with the tried and tested Blackberry formula, the Tour is as expected a tablet style phone featuring a full "candy bar" shaped QWERTY keyword beneath a good sized screen.

The tour falls somewhere between The Blackberry Curve; that did incredibly well with consumer users and the Blackberry Bold; that was aimed at corporate users.

RIM co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie told Reuters in an interview that the new device will soon launch with Verizon and Sprint in the United States and Telus and BCE's Bell unit in Canada.

The Tour aims to bridge the gap between these two sets of consumers by hopefully appealing to the masses.

RIM co-Chief Executive has said that it is a "world phone" meaning it will easily work on a variety of networks outside the country of purchase. We presume this means it will have a variety of compatible frequencies. In the past this proved very popular with business customers who were frequently traveling outside of Europe and The US.

The phone is also said to use HDSPA internet connectivity, a feature that never really found its way onto most blackberry's. This does imply that the phone will be expecting to do more than just send emails as a connection like this is more necessary for browsing the internet and streaming video.

Other than this the details given regarding this phone have been very sparse with only the one promotional image. Looking at this the phone bares most resemblance to the Bold 9000, sticking with the same shape body and black colouring. Personally with the contrasting lines on the black between the keys and the polished aluminium body I prefer the look of the Tour.

Rival companies such as Apple, Palm and Nokia all have been releasing phones that will rival the tour in both specification and looks recently.

With Apple selling out of the iPhone 3G S, Nokia releasing more details on the E72 and the Palm Pre's app store finally starting to take off the Blackberry Tour will definitely not have an easy ride.

There is currently no word on when the device will be released outside the US or if it ever will be, but the fact it is compatible with over "200 countries" hints that you will be able to get hold of this phone pretty much anywhere.

Reuters - "RIM aims to cross categories..."
RIM Press Release - "RIM introduces the blackberry tour..."