Canada’s Research in Motion has formally introduced its BlackBerry Peal Flip 8820 smartphone, a new addition to its popular BlackBerry line that leaves the stodgy confines of corporate connectivity behind and pushes the company further into making smartphones for everyday people.
“The popularity of BlackBerry smartphones has grown tremendously around the world and the introduction of this exciting new flip phone will help extend the reach of the BlackBerry platform even further,” said RIM’s president and CEO Mike Lazaridis, in a statement. “The BlackBerry Pearl Flip is a full-featured smartphone with a unique and friendly design and it is a natural choice for flip phone users who want to start doing more with their phone than just talk.”
The quad-band EDGE-based Pearl Flip 8820 offers two high resolution displays—320 by 240 on the inside and a smaller display on the outside for status messages and utilities—along with a video-capable 2 megapixel camera, microSD storage, Wi-Fi and USB connectivity, and a “large” QWERTY keyboard for users’ messaging needs. And, in a bid to make the Pearl Flip even more appealing to consumers, RIM is playing up the phone’s multimedia capabilities, including video playback on the internal display (turn the phone sideways and it switches to landscape mode) and direct management of music playlists on the handset itself.
And, of course, the BlackBerry Flip features all of RIM’s much-touted communications suite into its case, including email, messaging, an organizer (with calendar, contacts, and to-do list), an integrated Wb browser, and RTSP support for watching streaming video from things like YouTube’s mobile site.
RIM didn’t announce any carrier partners or pricing for the BlackBerry Pearl Flip, but promises the phone will be available around the world “this fall.” In the United States, reports have T-Mobile landing an exclusive deal to launch the BlackBerry Pearl Flip.
