|
The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 |
Research In Motion is betting a new phone design will lead to greater appeal beyond its core enterprise user base, today announcing its first flip-open, clamshell-style BlackBerry — the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220.
The Flip 8220’s dramatic design change, which also switches out the full QWERTY-style keyboard for a reduced, 20-button format, is evidence of RIM’s (NASDAQ: RIMM) intention to move deeper into the consumer space as well as its efforts to stave off increasing competition, such as Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) ever-popular iPhone.
“These are strictly consumer devices by virtue of the narrow-form keyboard,” Carmi Levy, an analyst at AR Communications told InternetNews.com. Enterprise users want heavy-duty text entry over Web-surfing consumer counterparts, Levy said, and that’s why enterprise-focused BlackBerry devices have typically featured a full-width keyboard.
The device is expected to become available through U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile later in the season.
RIM enjoys a very comfortable lead in the smartphone market, with the BlackBerry now representing one out of every 10 smartphones sold in the United States, according to an April report from industry watcher Strategy Analytics.
But increasing competition in the consumer space — as well as more advanced devices coming into the U.S. market from European powerhouse Nokia — are forcing the Canadian-based device maker to keep moving forward with new designs, Levy said.
“It needs a strong lineup to position itself against Apple’s iPhone 3G in the minds of holiday shoppers,” he said, adding that even greater competition looms with the possibility of new products stemming from Nokia’s big Symbian OS play, not to mention the highly anticipated arrival of Google’s Android smartphone.
Reuters reported that the first Google Android phone could arrive within two weeks. It’s also believed to be launched in partnership with T-Mobile.
“RIM’s ability to get all of its next-generation devices out the door and into the channel by year’s end as originally planned is critical to its continued market and revenue growth,” Levy said.
RIM first began exploring consumer phones with the launch of the Pearl in 2006, with features that included a camera and MP3 player. Main competitors back then were Palm’s Treo line and Motorola’s Q phones.
In January, RIM sought to enhance the Pearl’s consumer appeal by integrating television, music and Facebook social-networking software.
The new BlackBerry Pearl Flip now features two high-resolution, light-sensing color displays. The external LCD lets users preview incoming e-mails, text messages and phone calls without opening the handset.
“The popularity of BlackBerry smartphones has grown tremendously and this new flip phone will help extend the reach of the BlackBerry platform even further,” Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s president and co-CEO, said in a statement. Company executives were unable for further comment by press time.
More directly in response to the iPhone, the Flip provides the BlackBerry Media Sync application that lets users sync Apple’s iTunes digital music collections with the smartphone. The device’s browser now also supports online streaming video.
A recent study noted that iPhone lovers are more focused than other owners on multimedia features and ease of use. Accordingly, analysts believe that the appeal of such elements will spur smartphone design and feature changes.
This article was first published on InternetNews.com.
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020
Anticipating The Coming Wave Of AI Enhanced PCs
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 05, 2020
The Critical Nature Of IBM’s NLP (Natural Language Processing) Effort
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
August 14, 2020
Datamation is the leading industry resource for B2B data professionals and technology buyers. Datamation's focus is on providing insight into the latest trends and innovation in AI, data security, big data, and more, along with in-depth product recommendations and comparisons. More than 1.7M users gain insight and guidance from Datamation every year.
Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on Datamation and our other data and technology-focused platforms.
Advertise with Us
Property of TechnologyAdvice.
© 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this
site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives
compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products
appear on this site including, for example, the order in which
they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies
or all types of products available in the marketplace.