Today was a big day for all the Blackberry lovers out there, the new BlackBerry Bold 9000 was unveiled by Research in Motion (Nasdaq:RIMM). In this press release RIM's CEO says "The new BlackBerry Bold represents a tremendous step forward in business-grade smartphones and lives up to its name with incredible speed, power and functionality, all wrapped in a beautiful and confident design." A quick glance at the phone will tell you that RIM put a lot into making this a very elegant phone that was pleasing to the eyes. The phone is said to be by far the smartest of the smartphone's that Research in Motion has ever built. 
The phone will have a 480x320 display, a very impressive 128 MB of flash memory and 1GB internal memory. The phone will have a full QWERTY keyboard as many of the BlackBerry models have. The talk time will be 5 hours and the stand by time 13 hours. Supposedly, the colors absolutely pop off the screen on this beauty of a phone. The web browser has also been upgraded quite substantially to be a far more user-friendly browser.
The official carrier for this new Blackberry will be AT&T, but customers who are so excited they just want to go get one now will be disappointed to learn that they are not expected to be available worldwide until mid-summer. The expected price range is somewhere between $300 and $500. There are obviously quite a few people out there hoping it is closer to the $300 level.
What will this do for Research in Motion in its competition with Apple and the Iphone? Only time will tell, but I would expect this to create a very significant buzz over the summer as consumers see just how advanced this new Blackberry truly is. Research in Motion obviously put a lot of time into the development of this phone and they have a lot riding on its success. Initial reactions are very positive, in fact just look at RIMM's stock price which hit a new 52 week high today on this news.
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*the photo above of the blackberry 9000 is courtesy of gizmodo.com*
Im not in love with RIM. In fact, I would not be surprised if they are the next palm in 5 years. UNLESS they start becoming really innovative, centered on perfection to a intuitive user interface, and a few other aspects talked about below. We will see what the BOLD delivers.
I really cannot talk *too* much because I dont have a blackberry and just have started to read on the BOLD but, I do have experience. My fiance has had one for years, I have used it a lot. I am a tech enthusiast, professional, etc for 15+ years and have used many platforms, many PDAs, many smartphones etc. Currently, the Iphone has everyone beat. By a long shot. A lot of it is about innovation. Innovation that is timed right, and integrates into a smooth user experience. Obviously working, useful software is a must, but that is just so required of a successful company that these interface/usefullness/creative use things become front show.
It does not appear to me that RIM has shown any substantial innovation into this new phone. It basically has upgraded (yes, by a lot) features of prior smartphones. Fastest processor, faster radio, more mem, bigger res, etc. Those are a given in the industry... yes we know... hardware gets smaller and cheaper.
In addition to the aforementioned hardware increases and functioning software, the consumer (and enterprise consumer) now wants new uses. True innovation, ease of use, physical responsiveness (quick navigation of buttons and interface), intuitive operation, openness of use, flexibility, among other categories that apple is hitting more so than RIM, Palm, motorolla, etc.
The real show to keep an eye on is the upcoming Android platform Vs Iphone/Apple. Android is built on linux (so is iphone sorta), but iphone hides it really well. Iphone is not open, and is not completely flexible. Android is completely open and completely flexible. If Google can aim Android to have the standard new hardware combinations, functionality of software (this is a big unknown to me), new uses (got that covered i think), true innovation (maybe, dunno), ease of use (this will be the deal breaker; Google NEED their system to be dirt easy to use, even when installing and switching component after component), openness (in like flin on complete open source), flexibility (again, completly modular and open system).
Google has two outcomes in my opinion. A chance at taking the mobile revolution by storm, or they'll be pushed to a side ring of power-users who can handle the super advanced phones/os's.
Posted by: Nick Yeates | May 13, 2008 12:38 AM | Permalink to Comment