RIM Announces Its New Blackberry Model

Following the release of the much hyped iPhone, Research in Motion, another leading manufacturer of smart phones, best known for its Blackberry cell phones, has announced its newest smart phone, the Blackberry 8820.

The Blackberry 8820 is RIM's thinnest smart phone with a full QWERTY keyboard, a 320x240 display, trackball navigation, a Global Positioning System (GPS), media player, and an expandable microSD / microSDHC slot which can support up to 32GB.

The Blackberry was first introduced in 1999 and the phone is best known for their email capability that's why the phone is more popular with businessmen. The Blackberry can send and receive e-mail wherever there's a wireless network of cellular phone carriers. All Blackberry comes with a built-in QWERTY keyboard.

Although the Blackberry is competing with the iPhone, in the Associated Press' interview with Mike Lazardis, RIM's president and co-CEO, Lazardis had said that the attention that Apple's iPhone has brought to the smart phone industry has benefited RIM. Lazardis tipped his hat off to Steve Jobs for growing the industry and said that eventually, all phones will be smart phones and the iPhone has accelerated the public's awareness of a smart phone.

The Blackberry 8820 also supports Wi-Fi connectivity and can easily switch between cellular networks and Wi-Fi networks. It is also a quad-band GSM smartphone that supports GPRS and EDGE, unfortunately, like the iPhone, the Blackberry 8820 also doesn't support 3G. Though unlike the iPhone, the Blackberry 8820 has a built-in GPS so you can pinpoint your location anytime, other features that the Blackberry 8820 has over the iPhone is that the 8820 has a removable battery and supports third party applications.

One of Blackberry's best known features is probably its easy integration with corporate emails through the Blackberry Enterprise Server. The Blackberry Enterprise Server enables advance security and IT administration features within IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell GroupWise environments.
Mike Lazardis says, "The BlackBerry 8820 is an extraordinary business phone for people who really care about mobile communications and productivity. It features all the renowned power and usability of the BlackBerry platform with executive class styling and unprecedented connectivity features, including cellular, Wi-Fi and built-in GPS. The BlackBerry 8820 complements our carrier partners' cellular networks with the added ability to stay connected via Wi-Fi at home, through hotspots and corporate campuses."

AT&T is scheduled to launch the Blackberry 8820 later in the Summer and the phone will also be available from selected wireless carriers around the world in the coming weeks.

SOURCE:

Research in Motion, RIM Announces the BlackBerry 8820 Smartphone. URL: (http://www.rim.net/news/press/2007/pr-17_07_2007-01.shtml)

Associated Press, RIM Unveils New BlackBerry Model. URL: (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/canada_new_blackberry;_ylt=Aj7Nb3wT.VGLrUtEOF_aT_ojtBAF)