Toronto (ECN) - With the iPhone being all the rage right now, other consumer-savvy companies are joining the growing mobile market. Cell phones aren't going out of style, but their close cousins, full-fledged mobile devices, are attracting the real attention right now.
Blackberry's Pearl is not an iPhone, but it can accomplish just about as much. The "cool" of the Apple logo is gone, but what you have in its place is a budget-friendly pricetag, complete versatility, and all the functions you want in a mobile device.
What is the unveiling of the Blackberry Pearl Flip phone going to bring to RIM, the parents of the Blackberry? As a top-ten cell phone producer, RIM is clinging tenaciously to its nearly 3% share of the lucrative market. It wants more. And it probably needs more to survive. The Blackberry is a ubiquitious device among executives and on-the-go business personnel, but it needs more average consumers--the high school teen, the stay-at-home mom, and the college freshman.
Thankfully, the Pearl delivers this edge. Introducing a phone that has quick access to all the hottest apps: Facebook, MySpace, TiVo, Ticketmaster, iTunes, YourTube, and anything else entertainment or multimedia oriented. Add to this RIM's strategic partnership with Microsoft (and the power of LiveSearch), and you have a phone that is capable of popular appeal. Of course, as the name suggests, the "flip" part of the Pearl Flip is also an effort to gain that section of the clientele. Flip phones are far cooler than their stiff counterparts.
The Blackberry Pearl Flip also has a lot of those services that made Blackberry the ultimate mobile corporate tool: DataViz Documents to Go, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, lots of battery time, full keyboard, voice commands, conference call capability, and all the other perks and interfacing that Blackberry diehards will love.
But the Blackberry Pearl Flip is up against some tough competition. Numbers don't lie, and the numbers right now suggest that those who want a smartphone have already bought into the iPhone 3G. For those who aren't yet convinced, the Blackberry Pearl Flip has an advantage. But for how long? Tech blogs are already buzzing with the latest rumors about what's going to be on the new Google Android phone. And other cell phone producers are sure to follow suit with their own loaded version of a smartphone.
For the time being, however, RIM has a good idea. And the Blackberry Pearl Flip is about to make some kind of splash.
