BlackBerry Pearl Flip: The power of a BlackBerry smartphone in a new, sleek, stylish and fun design
Mumbai, India – Vodafone and Research In Motion today launched the BlackBerry® Pearl™ Flip 8220 smartphone in India – the first smartphone within RIM’s portfolio to come in the popular clamshell format.
The new BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone maintains the popular features and benefits of the BlackBerry Pearl smartphone; plus it packs numerous enhancements into its sleek flip design. The spacious SureType keyboard allows easy typing and dialing while the flip design helps protect the large, vibrant internal screen and provides the satisfying finality of ending a call by closing the phone. Customers will also appreciate the external display for previewing calendar reminders, email, text messages and phone calls at a glance.
This morning, T-Mobile and RIM put official word to what BlackBerry Cool readers have known for awhile. The T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve 8900 will launch this February, at an undetermined date (although we have two goodideas for you). While there’s no word on pricing yet, we do know that T-Mobile is including a 256MB MicroSD card in the Curve 8900, which is so small as to be practically useless. You can find a link to the BlackBerry Curve 8900’s specs (PDF) and RIM’s Curve 8900 page below, as well as the full press release after the jump.
Just before the New Year we had posted a screen capture showing a February 18th release date for the BlackBerry Curve 8900 on T-Mobile. Those fine gents at BerryReporter have published a new image showing a possible February 11th release date. Whether it comes just before Valentine’s Day or just after, I’m sure T-Mobile subscribers are itching to get their hands on the ‘BlackBerry Bold Lite’.
When we first reported that Orange UK was suspending BlackBerry Bold shipments due to ongoing technical problems — unexplained crashes, poor reception and dropped calls — it was a serious blow to RIM. Flagship products are supposed to be, well, a company’s standard bearer, and (on Orange UK at least) the BlackBerry Bold was waving the white flag.
However, at the time the issues were attributed to a launch OS that was… less than robust. Orange reinstated the BlackBerry Bold with the updated OS 4.6.0.162, but this has apparently not solved the problem. We hope for RIM’s sake that they can get this situation under control before Orange pulls the Bold permanently, but Orange customers deserve a BlackBerry that works. Perhaps an update to a new OS (4.6.0.190 perhaps?) will get the job done.
While pretty much any GSM subscriber in the world that wants a BlackBerry Bold can now easily get one from their carrier, things have not been so easy for those CDMA subscribers. Our poor friends on Sprint and Verizon (and Telus and Bell) have been waiting patiently for world on release dates of the BlackBerry Niagara (the CDMA Bold/8830 successor), but news has been slim since early October.
Thankfully, Engadget Mobile is reporting that Sprint is looking to release the BlackBerry Niagara sometime this quarter. The CDMA Bold variant would feature a 3.2 MPx camera, aGPS, Wi-Fi, EV-DO Rev. A, a gorgeous HVGA screen and possibly an updated design to make it similar in style to the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and BlackBerry Storm. Obviously, ‘this quarter’ is fairly vague, but I know it will make at least one person happy. We’ll post more as it comes!
Big news today for the Republic of Seychelles, as RIM and Airtel have jointly announced the arrival of BlackBerry service for the archipelago nation (yes, I looked it up). Airtel will launch BlackBerry service in Seychelles initially with the BlackBerry Curve 8320.
Mark Guibert, Vice President of Corporate Marketing at RIM added, “It is with great pleasure that RIM is working with Airtel to introduce the BlackBerry solution in Seychelles. Millions of people around the world have chosen a BlackBerry smartphone to stay connected to colleagues, friends and family while they are on the move.”
Airtel will be offering both BES and BIS services for corporate customers and individual users, respectively. For more information, head to http://www.airtel.sc/.
While the rest of us were quietly enjoying the Holidays with our family, one lone blogger was out working the streets for the latest in BlackBerry leaks. My boy Troy Brown over at BlackBerry News has uncovered photos of two upcoming Rogers BlackBerry Releases: the BlackBerry Storm 9520 and the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 82xx.
Here’s what’s known about each device so far. Both will feature 3G HSDPA. The BlackBerry Storm 9520 will feature Wi-Fi and the Pearl Flip 82xx will feature asecondary video camera for video calling. Both will be coming to Fido as well. No word yet on eventual release dates, but it looks like we weren’t that far off previously. You can see more slides after the jump!
Our Danish friends are getting a nice little present from RIM and 3 just in time for Christmas, with the announcement of the BlackBerry Bold. By now, 5 months after its initial launch, most of you know why the Bold is such a great stocking stuffer: 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, all rolled into one slim, sexy package with a HVGA screen.
3Business is offering the BlackBerry Bold for DKK 319.20 on an 18 month contract or for DKK 1,999 straight up. You can find out more information at their website below, but make sure to check out our exhaustive BlackBerry Bold review first. Merry Christmas, Danes!
Some friends at Telus just tipped us off that the Canadian carrier has received new shipments of the BlackBerry Storm 9530 that will hit stores today. We weren’t given any exact numbers, and it appears that only select Telus stores are receiving the delivery, but we were assured that ‘consumers now have the opportunity to get a Storm in time for the holidays and well into the New Year!‘
I’d recommended not taking any chances on this ‘New Year’ stuff and act now if you know you want a BlackBerry Storm. Otherwise, you might end up like the poor bastards above. If you find one, make sure to post on our BlackBerry Storm Chaser page, so the other members of the BlackBerry Nation will know where to get one!
I have a friend or two living in Hong Kong, and when I ask them about the local smartphone culture (yes, I bother them with such things), they always tell me that Hong Kongers just loves themselves some flip phones. It makes sense, then, that CSL and RIM have teamed up to launch the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 in Hong Kong today.
“CSL has long been a carrier partner of RIM, bringing various BlackBerry smartphones to Hong Kong,” said Mr. Aenil Premji, Chief Marketing Officer of CSL. “With the launch of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone, we are happy to continue to work with RIM to bring more choice of BlackBerry models to customers.”
The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 is now available at 1O1O centres and one2free shops for $3688 straight up. Those looking for more information can head to 1010’s website or the BlackBerry Pearl Flip page below.
