RIM Unveils Palm-like Wireless Handheld
Research in Motion Ltd., a Canadian developer of electronic-mail-endowed pagers, today showed off a soon-to-be released wireless handheld device whose looks and functionality invites comparisons with the popular organizers from Palm Inc.
The technical specifications for RIM's new 957 Wireless Handheld are strikingly similar to those of its other pager-sized wireless devices, which often receive praise for the BlackBerry e-mail software they contain and its smooth integration with enterprise e- mail systems.
But the new 957, set to ship in May, is, well, Palm-sized, offering a larger display than RIM's other BlackBerry-enabled devices and five megabytes of RAM. All RIM Wireless Handhelds sport 32-bit Intel 386 processors at their hearts and built-in wireless modems.
With its pager mindset, RIM designed its devices to be "always on" and always capable of receiving e-mail. That, says RIM, sets it apart from other handheld organizers with wireless capabilities that require users to actively check their e-mail accounts.
In addition, said Jim Balsillie, chairman and co-chief executive officer of RIM, the BlackBerry software allows mobile users to "deal with their never-empty inbox" without having to turn to e- mail accounts served up outside of the enterprise.
The company also announced that its BlackBerry e-mail software, which currently supports the Microsoft Exchange platform, would add Lotus Notes support, and that it is working to make the devices compatible with the wireless application protocol (WAP) for Web access.
RIM said it has formed a strategic relationship with Neomar Inc. to provide a WAP-compliant microbrowser for the RIM devices and for the BlackBerry e-mail technology.
"Neomar was founded on the belief that (personal digital assistants), not mobile phones, are the best platform for delivering critical wireless information," said John Troyer, president and chief executive officer of Neomar.
The Neomar microbrowser for RIM is currently in the Beta-test stage, with the first release expected this summer, the companies said.
Despite efforts by companies such as Neomar, RIM is not able to boast of a large community of developers like that currently turning out both commercial and freely available Palm applications. However, the company does offer a software development kit which can be downloaded from its Web site free of charge.
The suggested price of the RIM 975 is $499, with flat-rate airtime available at $39.99 a month.
More information on Research in Motion can be found online at: http://www.rim.net/.
Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com.