Research in Motion (RIM) officially announced on Tuesday the debut of its newest Blackberry device The new model is called the BlackBerry Tour and falls between the BlackBerry Curve, which has proved very popular with consumers, and the BlackBerry Bold, which RIM has aimed at high-end corporate users.
When Palm and Apple are slugging it out with their fancy touchscreen devices, RIM went for an incremental update to its BlackBerry line with the Tour, which will be available in the U.S. on both Verizon and Sprint later this summer.
Though the phone isn’t overly different from other Blackberry models in appearance, RIM co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie told Reuters this week the Tour is a “big step forward”.
Being marketed as a “world phone,” the BalckBerryTour – which will have BlackBerry App World access – boasts of GPS, a 3.2 megapixel photo and video camera, media player, and a host of other multimedia features similar to those in the BlackBerry Curve and Pearl.
The slender and smooth design comes with a 2.4-inch screen with a great resolution of 480 x 360 pixels, something we expect on bigger displays, as well as a full-QWERT keyboard that makes emails and messaging on the go a whole lot easier.
Although the iPhone reveled an initial pop in market share after the second generation version was released last July, that share has been nearly cut in half.
In the first quarter of this year, BlackBerrys had a 55.3% share, compared to 19.5% for iPhones, according to IDC data.
Analysts say the new device will help protect RIM’s share price from a host of new handsets from competitors and boost sales despite a still-cautious spending environment with consumers and businesses.