WITH THE WILD, TUMBLING COMPETITION in the smartphone market, BlackBerry has just announced that they’re staying in the game. Tuesday Research In Motion, developers and makers of the BlackBerry line, introduced their newest entry, the BlackBerry Torch 9800.
The latest upgrade also includes RIM’s newest phone software the BlackBerry 6.0. The new phone has both touch-screen and manual keyboards and is expected to satisfy current BlackBerry fans and keep them in the camp. But some experts say that they don’t expect it to take any growth away from androids or iPhones.
AT&T will offer the Torch 9800 starting Aug. 12 for $199.99 to eligible customers who agree to a new two-year contract. In addition to monthly fees for voice service, the carrier will charge $15 a month for a plan with 200 megabytes of wireless data or $25 for 2 gigabytes.
The early reviews for the Torch aren’t too favorable. Jared Newman at PCWorld says that the older BlackBerry Bold has advantages over the Torch. He has a brief rundown of the surface specs of the Torch 9800 HERE.
ZDNet has a compilation of reviews from several techie publications HERE and they are mixed. But it’s worth a look so you can get a feel for how the device is being received.
Depending on your point of view, this new BlackBerry is arriving just in the nick of time, or it’s showing up a tad too late when it comes to smartphone platforms competition. For the past three years the BlackBerry has been the undisputed leader in smartphone sales, but last year’s introduction of the Android mixed up the basket. In the first quarter of this year, the Android leaped over iPhone into 2nd-place in platform sales. Then this week it was disclosed that in the 2nd-quarter Android overtook BlackBerry, capturing 33% of smartphone sales. BlackBerry narrowly held onto 2nd place garnering 28% of sales compared to iPhone’s 22%.
CNET file this video report today and they give a good visual explanation of the Torch 9800′s features and improvements in the first half of the report:
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