Just a reminder to those of you who have been caught up following the Jim Balsillie vs. Gary Bettman clash for control of the Phoenix Coyotes, Mr. Balsillie still runs a technology company that tends to release these pretty popular mobile devices from time to time.
They’re called BlackBerrys. Ring a bell?
Tuesday morning Mr. Balsillie’s Research In Motion announced it will be releasing the latest addition to its ever-expanding BlackBerry smart phone line up -- the BlackBerry Tour -- later this summer.
We understand that Mr. Balsillie clearly has bigger things on his mind this week, but gadget fans and anyone looking to upgrade their smart phone this summer might want to take note.
Indeed, the Tour may be just the beginning of a RIM revolution in 2009.
With Mr. Balsillie's co-CEO Mike Lazaridis and his team of engineers reportedly prepping a veritable bevy of new devices in the bowels of RIM's Waterloo, Ont. headquarters for release later this year, the battle for control of the smart phone market is about to get a whole lot more interesting.
The announcement of the Tour comes just a week after rival Apple Inc. unveiled the iPhone 3GS -- the ‘s’ stands for ‘speed’ apparently -- and comes on the heels of Palm Inc. launching its much-hyped Pre device in the U.S. (it’s due to hit Canadian carriers later this year).
While the Tour isn’t a touch screen iPhone killer, it does provide a new high-end enterprise option for RIM’s CDMA carrier partners, such as Bell in Canada and Sprint and Verizon in the U.S.
The Tour will be available through Bell later this summer, although the company hasn’t settled on an official release date or pricing plan yet, a spokeswoman for the telecom giant said this morning.
Since it’s a CDMA device, we feel it is likely that Telus will also be carrying the Tour, but we have yet to hear back from their press folks. (Update: Telus will indeed be carrying the Tour when it is released this summer, the company has confirmed.)
A next generation (3G), CDMA device with a 3.2 megapixel camera, full HTML browser, video streaming support and the BlackBerry App World built in, the Tour supports quad-band networks around the world. So, in other words, you can take it on business trips and vacations.
However, this could be just the tip of the iceberg for RIM in 2009.
RBC Dominion Securities analyst Mike Abramsky believes the tour is just the warm up act for RIM’s headlining show in the second half of the year.
What’s on tap for the second half of the year from the Waterloo tech wunderkinds?
Mr. Abramsky is expecting an entry level QWERTY device to compete with the $99 iPhone, a 3G version of the BlackBerry Curve, a touchscreen version of the Bold, a 3G Pearl, an updated version of the Storm and a touch screen slider that could lure customers who were thinking about getting one of the Google Android-powered devices.
I'll take that line up over anything they've got in Phoenix, that's for sure.
Last year, RIM released four new devices in just seven months as it sought to dominate the consumer and business user ends of the market in the months before the back back to school rush and the Christmas tech feeding frenzy.
It looks like Mr. Balsillie & Co. are looking to top that track record this time around, positioning RIM as the company to beat in the run up to the holiday buying season.
In other RIM news, the company is set to announce its first quarter, fiscal 2010, financial results after the markets close on Thursday.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled hockey league controversy.
They’re called BlackBerrys. Ring a bell?
Tuesday morning Mr. Balsillie’s Research In Motion announced it will be releasing the latest addition to its ever-expanding BlackBerry smart phone line up -- the BlackBerry Tour -- later this summer.
We understand that Mr. Balsillie clearly has bigger things on his mind this week, but gadget fans and anyone looking to upgrade their smart phone this summer might want to take note.
Indeed, the Tour may be just the beginning of a RIM revolution in 2009.
With Mr. Balsillie's co-CEO Mike Lazaridis and his team of engineers reportedly prepping a veritable bevy of new devices in the bowels of RIM's Waterloo, Ont. headquarters for release later this year, the battle for control of the smart phone market is about to get a whole lot more interesting.
The announcement of the Tour comes just a week after rival Apple Inc. unveiled the iPhone 3GS -- the ‘s’ stands for ‘speed’ apparently -- and comes on the heels of Palm Inc. launching its much-hyped Pre device in the U.S. (it’s due to hit Canadian carriers later this year).
While the Tour isn’t a touch screen iPhone killer, it does provide a new high-end enterprise option for RIM’s CDMA carrier partners, such as Bell in Canada and Sprint and Verizon in the U.S.
The Tour will be available through Bell later this summer, although the company hasn’t settled on an official release date or pricing plan yet, a spokeswoman for the telecom giant said this morning.
Since it’s a CDMA device, we feel it is likely that Telus will also be carrying the Tour, but we have yet to hear back from their press folks. (Update: Telus will indeed be carrying the Tour when it is released this summer, the company has confirmed.)
A next generation (3G), CDMA device with a 3.2 megapixel camera, full HTML browser, video streaming support and the BlackBerry App World built in, the Tour supports quad-band networks around the world. So, in other words, you can take it on business trips and vacations.
However, this could be just the tip of the iceberg for RIM in 2009.
RBC Dominion Securities analyst Mike Abramsky believes the tour is just the warm up act for RIM’s headlining show in the second half of the year.
What’s on tap for the second half of the year from the Waterloo tech wunderkinds?
Mr. Abramsky is expecting an entry level QWERTY device to compete with the $99 iPhone, a 3G version of the BlackBerry Curve, a touchscreen version of the Bold, a 3G Pearl, an updated version of the Storm and a touch screen slider that could lure customers who were thinking about getting one of the Google Android-powered devices.
I'll take that line up over anything they've got in Phoenix, that's for sure.
Last year, RIM released four new devices in just seven months as it sought to dominate the consumer and business user ends of the market in the months before the back back to school rush and the Christmas tech feeding frenzy.
It looks like Mr. Balsillie & Co. are looking to top that track record this time around, positioning RIM as the company to beat in the run up to the holiday buying season.
In other RIM news, the company is set to announce its first quarter, fiscal 2010, financial results after the markets close on Thursday.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled hockey league controversy.
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