Weekend Contest: The non-camera Pearl and it’s necessity

Posted

on November 3, 2006, at 11:58 AM

It’s been a pretty diverse week. We talked about 3Q earnings, RIM’s stock-related woes, and the excitement over GMail’s new mobile service. News has been picking up, though, around Cingular and the upcoming release of their Pearl, the BlackBerry 8100c.

Not even an hour ago we posted about a rumour regarding Cingular releasing not one, but two versions of the Pearl: one with a camera, one without. So our question to you this week is: Does the release of a Pearl sans-camera defeat the original purpose of the device?* RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie has spoken about the magic trifecta, and we don’t see a cameraless Pearl fitting in, really.

Give us your thoughts on this and the best reply will walk away with a copy of the BBCool-approved Ascendo Fitness – great for keeping in shape, especially around this time of year.

Last week we asked you about where the Pearl sits in the marketplace. Dave walks away with a $20 iTunes gift certificate for his quality (and lenghty) reply that states he’s barely seen any initiative to get the Pearl more into the prosumer market – who’s RIM was apparently targeting. Thanks everyone for your replies, looking forward to the thoughts on this one.

* We realize and acknowledge that a Pearl-less 8100 probably isn’t happening. But, given all the rumblings about various enterprise users not being able to use the device to people who simply don’t want a camera, we thought it’d be interesting to hear your thoughts. Thanks, folks.

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http://www.kradest.com/ Krad

I personally don’t even care. It is so easy to paste a piece of plastic inside the cover.

And what about the bes people? can’t the camera be disabled via I.T. Policy?
http://www.kradest.com Krad

I personally don’t even care. It is so easy to paste a piece of plastic inside the cover.

And what about the bes people? can’t the camera be disabled via I.T. Policy?
Shad Krakowski

While I see the camera as being an upward evolution of BB’s in general, and with the Pearl specifically, I also see the Pearl itself as the natural evolution of SureType BB’s like the 71xx series, regardless of whether or not it’s got a camera.

It’s only natural for SureType-sized BlackBerries to shrink a bit in size, as most technology is prone to do. And aside from the camera and media player, the Pearl is still a BlackBerry, first and foremost. I think smartphones are the wave of the future, so to speak, and the BlackBerry has always been at the forefront of that.

Still, I have to echo the first poster’s sentiments regarding disabling the camera via BES and IT departments. It seems like it would be easier to do it that way, rather than produce two different Pearls with such a minor difference (although I suppose I can understand that just having the camera period might be seen as a liability, “just because it’s there.”)
Shad Krakowski

While I see the camera as being an upward evolution of BB’s in general, and with the Pearl specifically, I also see the Pearl itself as the natural evolution of SureType BB’s like the 71xx series, regardless of whether or not it’s got a camera.

It’s only natural for SureType-sized BlackBerries to shrink a bit in size, as most technology is prone to do. And aside from the camera and media player, the Pearl is still a BlackBerry, first and foremost. I think smartphones are the wave of the future, so to speak, and the BlackBerry has always been at the forefront of that.

Still, I have to echo the first poster’s sentiments regarding disabling the camera via BES and IT departments. It seems like it would be easier to do it that way, rather than produce two different Pearls with such a minor difference (although I suppose I can understand that just having the camera period might be seen as a liability, “just because it’s there.”)
Andrew

Yawwwwnnnnn….The Pearl must be the most hyped device in the past 5 years. I have owned a 7100,7290 and 8700 and they are all fantastic devices,But from my POV, the shortcomings are blazingly apparent- no external memory, no Music player, no Video Player etc – So I switched to a Samsung i320 – Its as thin as …heck its just thin..a Windows Mobile 5 device, Push email works like a charm, Expandable up to 1GB with a Micro SD (lots of Pat Metheny on that!), Mp3s, Quad Band,EDGE,Video player,1.3,MP camera, SRS WOW equalizer for the music, full QWERTY Key Board…etc. Etc, Etc…I have my 7290 stashed in the drawer and pull it out and wax nostalgic for a while but I always put it back, I simply cannot use it anymore – I guess I’ll wait until the Pearl makes it way to my part of the world and then revist my sentiments.
Andrew

Yawwwwnnnnn….The Pearl must be the most hyped device in the past 5 years. I have owned a 7100,7290 and 8700 and they are all fantastic devices,But from my POV, the shortcomings are blazingly apparent- no external memory, no Music player, no Video Player etc – So I switched to a Samsung i320 – Its as thin as …heck its just thin..a Windows Mobile 5 device, Push email works like a charm, Expandable up to 1GB with a Micro SD (lots of Pat Metheny on that!), Mp3s, Quad Band,EDGE,Video player,1.3,MP camera, SRS WOW equalizer for the music, full QWERTY Key Board…etc. Etc, Etc…I have my 7290 stashed in the drawer and pull it out and wax nostalgic for a while but I always put it back, I simply cannot use it anymore – I guess I’ll wait until the Pearl makes it way to my part of the world and then revist my sentiments.
Shad Krakowski

The Pearl is hyped, this is true. But so is every other piece of “cutting edge” new technology, regardless of manufacturer. RIM was finally going for a segment of the market they didn’t have, and they’ve done a good job of converting it. I switched to the Pearl after using numerous Windows Mobile devices. My last WM5 device was a T-Mo MDA. It was great in theory, but….It crashed/locked up at least once a day (yes, I cleared my system memory several times a day), it was slow, and it just seemed like Microsoft was trying to cram too much into a smaller package. To me, there’s a difference between trying to shoehorn an entire OS into a small device (such as with WM), and starting out writing an OS specifically for mobile devices. Not to mention that every WM device I’ve used has been much bigger than my Pearl, which is thinner than a RAZR when closed (and talk about an over-hyped phone!!!) WM5 was a great idea…in theory. For me, it never worked like it really should’ve. If it does for you, that’s great, but I sold my MDA only two months after getting it.

Aside from that, the Pearl does everything your Samsung does…expandable up to 1GB (supposedly 2GB support is coming with the next OS update), mp3 playback, quad-band w/ EDGE, audio/video playback, 1.3mp camera. The only difference is the Pearl doesn’t have a full QWERTY keyboard or EQ settings. The 8800 will take care of the full keyboard (I actually really like SureType, it seems to be the best predictive-text I’ve ever used), and it doesn’t have the EQ. I don’t think RIM is overdoing it with the Pearl promotion, considering how much of a leap this was for them…just a year or two ago, their president said they’d “never release a Blackberry with a camera”, but look where they’re at now.

I’ve wanted to switch to Blackberry for the past three years, but didn’t because of either form factor and/or a lack of features compaired to similarly-priced phones. I don’t use the camera or mp3 player that often, but if I’m spending nearly $400 for a phone, I’m surely going to take the one with the extra features, just to make it worth my while. Now RIM has finally released the BB that I’ve been waiting for, and I bought mine the first week it came out. I didn’t HAVE to buy it, but it does exactly everything I need it to do, and it does it better than any other smartphone I’ve ever owned. I’ll never use another smartphone than a BB again, and it wasn’t because of the hype, but because it excels at exactly what it was designed for.
Shad Krakowski

The Pearl is hyped, this is true. But so is every other piece of “cutting edge” new technology, regardless of manufacturer. RIM was finally going for a segment of the market they didn’t have, and they’ve done a good job of converting it. I switched to the Pearl after using numerous Windows Mobile devices. My last WM5 device was a T-Mo MDA. It was great in theory, but….It crashed/locked up at least once a day (yes, I cleared my system memory several times a day), it was slow, and it just seemed like Microsoft was trying to cram too much into a smaller package. To me, there’s a difference between trying to shoehorn an entire OS into a small device (such as with WM), and starting out writing an OS specifically for mobile devices. Not to mention that every WM device I’ve used has been much bigger than my Pearl, which is thinner than a RAZR when closed (and talk about an over-hyped phone!!!) WM5 was a great idea…in theory. For me, it never worked like it really should’ve. If it does for you, that’s great, but I sold my MDA only two months after getting it.

Aside from that, the Pearl does everything your Samsung does…expandable up to 1GB (supposedly 2GB support is coming with the next OS update), mp3 playback, quad-band w/ EDGE, audio/video playback, 1.3mp camera. The only difference is the Pearl doesn’t have a full QWERTY keyboard or EQ settings. The 8800 will take care of the full keyboard (I actually really like SureType, it seems to be the best predictive-text I’ve ever used), and it doesn’t have the EQ. I don’t think RIM is overdoing it with the Pearl promotion, considering how much of a leap this was for them…just a year or two ago, their president said they’d “never release a Blackberry with a camera”, but look where they’re at now.

I’ve wanted to switch to Blackberry for the past three years, but didn’t because of either form factor and/or a lack of features compaired to similarly-priced phones. I don’t use the camera or mp3 player that often, but if I’m spending nearly $400 for a phone, I’m surely going to take the one with the extra features, just to make it worth my while. Now RIM has finally released the BB that I’ve been waiting for, and I bought mine the first week it came out. I didn’t HAVE to buy it, but it does exactly everything I need it to do, and it does it better than any other smartphone I’ve ever owned. I’ll never use another smartphone than a BB again, and it wasn’t because of the hype, but because it excels at exactly what it was designed for.
SUFan

Do you think the security guard at a company or a court room would understand if you told them your camera was disabled by BES? Of course not, and this would be a reason to have a version with and without a camera IF RIM is targeting the prosumer market.
SUFan

Do you think the security guard at a company or a court room would understand if you told them your camera was disabled by BES? Of course not, and this would be a reason to have a version with and without a camera IF RIM is targeting the prosumer market.

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