RIM, or Research in Motion, reptorted that sales of all Blackberry mobiel devices jumped by over 2 million devices over the past year. The cell phone giant shipped out 41.9 million units in Q2 of 2008, which toppled their total of 39.8 millions in the previous year. This number indicates significant growth for RIM in the US, a market already fully saturated by mobile phones- It also puts the company over the 10% mark in terms of the US Domestic Mobile Phone market share. For more Q2 market info check out this Reuter’s Mobile News Article.
Technorati Tags: RIM, research in motion, blackberry, thunder, market share, verizon, mobile phone, pearl,
August 12th, 2008
Research In Motion, the company behind Blackberry, is expanding its product line and releasing 4 completely different phones for different types of users. All 4 will be released by the end of the year, and all of them sound pretty sweet in their own right. Here’s a brief rundown…
The first, coming within the next couple weeks, is the Blackberry Bold, or 9000. Rumors of a release date have the Bold coming out on July 25th, but seeing as that refers to tomorrow, I couldn’t really say for sure. Other sources point to the following week on the 29th, which seems more reasonable. Anyway, the Bold is a continuation of the classic Blackberry Curve, highlighted with more power, a better, brighter, quality screen, GPS, and a new OS. It still has the full QWERTY keyboard and all the tested software that Blackberry provides, and is targeted toward the business oriented person.
The next, which is also in the upper price range, is the Blackberry Thunder, or 9500, which is expected to come out sometime in November or December. As I’m sure you know, the Thuder is defined by its touchscreen interface, and has been coined by many to be the ‘iPhone killer’. In actuality, this device was built more to say “we can do it too” than to try and dominate the iPhone– Blackberry will still rely mostly on its Pearl, Curve, and Bold sales over those of the Thunder. At any rate, the screen is supposed to have better quality than the iPhone’s, but for right now, most of the talk is just rumor.
The third on our list is the newly unveiled KickStart, which is the first flip phone that Blackberry has ever put into production. It will be more of a mid range phone in terms of pricing, and is tentatively scheduled to release in September. Again, most of the Blackberry features will be included, and the keyboard will be the same as that already featured on the Blackberry Pearl.
The final Blackberry product to come is the basic, inexpensive Javelin, which will release around the same time as the Thunder in November or December. It is, to be short, a simplified version of the Blackberry Curve that will have all the same capability, with slower speeds and not quite as amazing quality parts. Again, most of the talk about the Javelin is still just rumor, but it is definite that the phone will release sometime in the next months.
And that concludes the Blackberry summary…
Technorati Tags: blackberry, blackberry thunder, blackberry bold, blackberry kickstart, blackberry javelin, blackberry pearl, blackberry curve, RIM
July 24th, 2008
Ever since the emergence of internet enabled mobile phones, there has been a heated conflict among Mobile Web Service providers; a true fight to the finish, which continues today. On one side, there are the direct connectors, the radical liberals who want the user experience to be as limitless as possible, who want the mobile internet to be the same internet that you access from your computer, and who want the data plan charges to be off the charts. But on the other side, there are proxy servers, fascist service providers that want to regulate and simplify the mobile web as they so choose, all to make the mobile internet ‘easier’ and more ‘efficient’. Who will win in this battle royale? I have no idea… To be honest I just thought I’d try and play up the drama. Here are the basic pros and cons on each service.
Direct Connection:
- (pro) supported by major companies such as Internet Explorer Moible, and the emerging FENNEC (mozilla)
- (pro) internet is just as you view it on a computer… you phone therefore has full internet capability
- (pro) can view images, listen to songs, view videos just as you would on your computer
- (con) full internet capability means huge amounts of data streaming = huge bills for those that don’t have unlimited data plans
- (con) because the mobile web is slower than a computer connection, large amounts of data means more time to transfer and proccess it… moible browsing through direct connection is much slower
Proxy Servers:
- (pro) supported by successful established companies such as Opera, and Blackberry’s use proxy servers too
- (pro) web pages are simplified, streamlined for mobile phones… they therefore can load much faster
- (pro) streamlining also means less data per page = more internet browsing for your buck
- (con) a compressed website limits which pages can be viewed… also the capability for images and video and music is much more limited
- (con) there are no regulations as to how third parties should compress websites… they could potentially steer you to wherever they choose
There really is no right or wrong choice… For now both are equally important options for different user preferences. Ideally, the combination of faster wireless service, cheaper data plans, and better mobile technology will allow direct connection to be the standard… If you want to read more, check out the article.
Technorati Tags: mobile web browser, WAP, proxy server, direct connection, internet explorer mobile, fennec, blackberry, opera, data plan
July 22nd, 2008
It looks like the new Blackberry Thunder 9500, which is supposed to be RIM’s iPhone 3G killer, is the furthest thing from it at this point. Boy Genius was able to get amazing inside information once again, quoting one of his “RIM ninjas” as saying “Thunder is in no way, shape, or form market ready. If bold was any indication, Thunder won’t be ready for at least another 4-5 months.” The source even went on to say “most of the people who have handled it think it’s a joke.”
Apparently, there are several serious problems with the phone at this point. The keyboard is very difficult to type on, the screen shows ripples whenever it is touched, and the accelerometer within the phone is overly sensitive, making the phone go completely out of whack whenever it is moved. There are also half second delays that consistently occur while navigating through the operating system. Let’s hope these bugs can be worked out… I’d really like to see the Thunder emerge and actually challenge the iPhone! It’d be a shame if it fell into the other group of minor touchscreen wanabees. For more from Boy Genius click here.
Technorati Tags: blackberry thunder, blackberry 9500, iphone 3g, boy genius, boy genius report, RIM
July 9th, 2008
A lot people have been coming to our blog looking for info on the Blackberry Thunder. With the new iPhone 3G being just around the corner, I have been wanting to do a iphone 3G vs. Blackberry Thunder comparison for a while. Unfortunately, the data (especially for the Blackberry Thunder) is rather limited. This is what we know so far.
- The Blackberry Thunder is running on Verizon in the US. The iPhone 3G is for AT&T of course.
- Both have a full touch screen.
- Both support mp3s.
- Hmm… both of them are black?
See, that’s how little info we have on the Blackberry Thunder. But we do have a possible picture of the Blackberry Thunder / Verizon Thunder / Vodafone Thunder / Blackberry 9500 / or Blackberry Storm (the old nickname before Blackberry said that it’s not true). Again, all the pictures of the Thunder were made by BoyGeniusReport. Click here to read all the background info here:
Now take a look at the iPhone 3G. Click on the image to see the specs on Apple:
So what’s the conclusion? I have no idea. I think it’s too early to tell what the Thunder has so far. Maybe we can get a better comparision once Blackberry releases more data on the phone.
Technorati Tags: iphone, iphone 3g, cell phone, blackberry, blackberry thunder, pictures, images, apple iphone, blackberry 9500, verizon
June 26th, 2008
As we so heavily discussed several weeks ago, Blackberry’s next big product is going to be the Blackberry 9500, also known as the Blackberry Thunder or Verizon Thunder. Blackberry already announced that the hype is real, setting the Blackberry Thunder up to be the big iPhone competitor.
As far as I know, they haven’t released any demos or screen shots of the product… until now. The genius Boy Genius (no pun intended), also amongst the first to break the Blackberry Thunder news a couple weeks ago, somehow got his hands on a picture of what the phone looks like. Of course, not everything shown online is real, but this sure looks like it could potentially be what the Blackberry 9500 would look like.
So without further ado, here’s the Verizon Thunder (Sorry for keep on switching names on you guys. Since no official name is really set yet, I am not quite sure what to call it either):
Again, the credit goes out to Boy Genius. Between the 3G iPhone and this phone, I am not sure which one I should pick now…
Technorati Tags: verizon, verizon thunder, blackberry thunder, blackberry 9500, boygeniusreport, picture, pics
June 9th, 2008
Here we go again. Blackberry Thunder news, but this time it’s for real. Official. No more rumors!
Actually RIM basically confirmed all the rumors that we have been posting for the last couple weeks regarding the new touchscreen Blackberry, known as the Blackberry 9500 or Blackberry Thunder. It is officially going to launch on Verizon and Vodafone (so I guess you can also call it Verizon Thunder or Vodafone Thunder too).
Basically the rumors are true. In terms of how it looks though, that’s still up in the air as far as I know. But again like I revealed a couple weeks ago, Boy Genius Report made a mock design:
Get ready, iPhone. Your competitor is in sight! And our source for this official annoucement? Thank you PC Magazine!
Technorati Tags: blackberry, blackberry thunder, thunder blackberry, verizon, vodafone, verizon thunder, cell phone, smart phone, mobile, mobile phone, iphone
May 29th, 2008
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