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RIM Prepping iPhone Assault

Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 9:25 AM - by

Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry smart phone devices, may be ready with its response to Apple's iPhone by February 2008. Word surfaced on Wednesday that the company could release two new phones, including one with a touch interface, early next year, according to Globe and Mail.

RIM's touch interface BlackBerry appeared in a patent schematic that describes a device called Touchscreen 1.0. The patent shows a device with interface elements similar to Apple's iPhone along with a fold away QWERTY keypad.

The company's second offering, dubbed Pearl 2.0, looks to be poised to strengthen RIM's position in the consumer phone market. Pearl 2.0 will be similar to the current Pearl, and will sport a similar look and feature set. It also will include a numeric keypad that rotates 90 degrees to offer a more QWERTY-like typing experience.

While most cell phone manufacturers initially discounted Apple's combination iPod and smart phone, it appears the iPhone's impact on mainstream handhelds is continuing to grow.

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Thu Dec 20, 2007 12:00 pm

This is good news if only to keep pushing competition. Each time I encounter a regular phone now that I have used the iPhone for months it is just stunning how long it has taken the industry to sense a need to improve the interface. The iPhone as it is now is literally YEARS beyond what any of these companies will put out by 2009. Just the nature of the interface fluidity, integration, and simplicity is just not in the DNA of any competitor right now.

It remains to be seen what Pearl 2.0 or whatever does, but I'll bet a weeks pay it is a knee-jerk "touch-screen" implementation of the same cheesy RIM icon interface.

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brett_x said:

member since 24 Jan 2006 with 322 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Dec 20, 2007 12:57 pm

Can't resist... title.... too... easy... There's nothing like a RIM prepping.

/sorry.

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Tiger said:

member since 17 Jun 2003 with 1018 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:04 pm

I'm with you on that brett_x.

It's a job, somebody's got to do it.

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