BlackBerry Pearl dives into smartphone market

The slim new BlackBerry 8100 "Pearl" offers a camera, media player and support for push email

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) aims to take a larger share of the smartphone market with the launch of a compact new device, the BlackBerry Pearl.

Available from carriers in early October, the new handset weighs just 89g and is smaller than many rival smartphones. It adds features such as a digital camera and a media player to appeal to a wider audience than previous BlackBerry models, but still supports push email connectivity to a corporate BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

RIM chief operating officer Larry Conlee said the Pearl is an attempt to take the BlackBerry out of the boardroom and into the hands of other staff.

"We asked what was needed to take [BlackBerry] to a broader audience. The answer was that, firstly, it has to be a BlackBerry and it has to be reliable, but it also has to have a camera, and multimedia, other things you also need for outside of work," Conlee said.

Charmaine Eggberry, RIM's European vice-president, said that a blurring of the boundaries between work and leisure was leading to a greater focus on mobility and mobile access to data in particular.

"Users want to work wherever and whenever suits them," she added. "[Pearl] is not just for a corporate executive, but also taxi drivers, and other people who are busy."

The BlackBerry Pearl features a mini trackball instead of a five-way navigation key, and also has RIM's SureType keypad that allows full text entry with fewer keys than a normal qwerty layout. The Pearl also has Bluetooth to link to a wire-free headset.

However, the Pearl – also known as the BlackBerry 8100 – is only a GSM/GPRS device, while other handset makers are adding models with 3G and/or Wi-Fi connectivity. RIM said that 3G will come in the future, but that most European carriers wanted a GPRS/Edge model first.