RIM Lets Blackberry Users Do the Talking

Research In Motion has added voice capabilities to its RIM BlackBerry handheld device to create the Java-based BlackBerry 5810, which it is demonstrating at the Comdex Chicago trade show, the company announced Monday.

The PDA is designed to work over GSM/GPRS mobile networks with Java 2 Micro Edition as its core operating system, RIM says in a statement.

Along with voice, the BlackBerry 5810 includes "always on" e-mail, Web browser, and Short Messaging Service capabilities as well as organizer functions such as a calendar and address book that are used with a "thumb-typing" keyboard, RIM says.

The BlackBerry 5810 joins other combination mobile phone and PDA products on or coming to the market, such as the Handspring Treo from Handspring, which is expected to hit shelves next month, and the Nokia 9210 Communicator smart phone from Nokia, which is based on the Symbian operating system and began selling in Europe last year.

Also bound for the U.S. market is the HP Jornada 928 Wireless Digital Assistant from Hewlett-Packard, the first branded Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition device.

The BlackBerry device is aimed at enterprise customers. Versions of the BlackBerry without voice capabilities are currently being used by about 6,500 companies, says RIM spokesperson Tilly Quanjer.

"The BlackBerry 5810 is different from, say, the Treo because it is an end-to-end solution for enterprises and comes with end-to-end security. Plus it has push technology, which means that BlackBerry sends your e-mail to you, so it just arrives, whereas with the Treo you have to download it," Quanjer says.

AT&T Wireless Services and the Deutsche Telekom subsidiary VoiceStream Wireless have begun accepting orders for the BlackBerry 5810 in the U.S. and will begin shipping the BlackBerry 5810 by the end of March, RIM says.

Though customers can place telephone orders for BlackBerry 5810 through both AT&T Wireless and VoiceStream beginning Monday, pricing was not available. "We have not yet made the pricing public," Quanjer says.

The Treo 180 communicator is now available for $399 when bought with GSM service from Cingular Wireless or VoiceStream, or for $549 without service, according to Handspring's Web Site.

In Canada, RIM has a similar deal with Rogers AT&T Wireless, though a release date has yet to be announced.

In Europe, mobile-phone operator mmO2 will sell a version of the BlackBerry 5810, though it is not expected to hit the market until the end of the third or fourth quarter, according to mmO2 spokesperson Simon Gordon.

MmO2 has no plans to demonstrate the BlackBerry 5810 at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany, this month, though it will be showing branded versions of the Handspring Treo and the XDA, mmO2's version of the Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition, Gordon says.

In other announcements at Comdex Chicago, RIM says it has extended its partnership with IBM to offer RIM's GSM/GPRS products through IBM Global Services. IBM will be the first IT services provider to offer BlackBerry 5810 handhelds to its enterprise customers as part of its business consulting and systems integration services package, the company says.

RIM also announced that it intends to introduce its BlackBerry Web Client in the second quarter. This is a Web-based application that will support POP3, Internet Message Access Protocol, and ISP's e-mail protocols and allow users to access multiple existing email accounts from the device.

Cognos said last week that it will formally announce a partnership with RIM at Comdex Chicago to bring Cognos' new alert and notification system, NoticeCast, to the Blackberry device for e-mail alerts.