RIM lights a candle for the BlackBerry Torch
OS rev, touch screen, full QWERTY
RIM's BlackBerry Torch 9800 smartphone makes its debut today, initially as an AT&T exclusive, and it takes the company squarely into iPhone territory.
This makes the 9800 very big deal for RIM, the Canadian master of smartphones for the enterprise which somehow, picked up a big consumer following for not particularly consumer-friendly phones.
The march of Apple's iPhone and the spectacular rise of Android-based phones puts this lucrative business under threat and the Torch 9800 is RIM's response.
This is the first handset to run BlackBerry 6, the latest rev of RIM's phone operating system, which means a new WebKit based browser and a better UI - hurrah! And it this slider phone has a touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard, and GPS and Wi-Fi in b/g/n flavours - we're out of breath already. The spec includes a 5MP camera, 512MB Flash and 4GB onboard memory.
As is the way these days, the 9800 comes with lots of pre-loaded icons to hook into BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on. And there is a universal search function to help you find all the stuff you've loaded on your phone. Is this enough to tempt people away from Apple's App store?
The Torch 9800 starts shipping on August 12 for $199 with a two year voice and data contract. Two AT&T data plans are on offer: $15 for 200MB of wireless data or $25 for 2GB. Overage fees apply, so read the small print.
US retailers Best Buy, Wal-Mart and RadioShack are stocking the phone alongside AT&T.
COMMENTS
@AC
Very good point. The anti-apple people on this forum alone would be having an aneurism.
Canadian Spy Agency?
US spy agency maybe but Canadian? The UAE position on banning Blackberry because they use Relay servers based in other countries is primitive and oppressive. It is the UAE that want to monitor the traffic themselves so they can spy on their own people, that is the issue!
Maybe last to market but they used the the time wisely
Just the same old, same old ... topically Canadian.
The same old form factor that everyone is used to; the same old keyboard that everyone is used to ... the same old slippers that so many are comfortable with.
Clever, RIM.
And such s short promotion time-line; no razzmatazz, no pumping up only to deliver a product in progress.
And so Canadian ... just getting the job done right first time.
but...
can't use it in UAE, Saudi... ?
I think it should be banned for use by most foreign governments - don't want the Canadian and US spy agencies having access to our data that easily.
Can you imagine the ourcry if Steve Jobs had all iPhone emails going via the Apple HQ ?
must contain
Nooooo... we wanted a sideways slideout keyboard and a landscape screen...
I suppose this is a small step in the right direction, I guess we'll only have to wait another few Years to wait until they get it right.
