RIM, AT&T announce Wi-Fi-enabled Pearl 8120

by ryan | March 14, 2008 at 10:35 am | 652 views | 1 comment

This is clearly an attempt to battle against the iphone and it's always a necessary and good idea. The real coup is having a carrier like AT&T with the cajones to give up the lucrative data access charges when users are using wifi. AT&T realized they would make lots more money by signing exclusive deals with handset makers. The problem with the Pearl though is that the browsing experience isn't ideal, but to have so much functionality in such a small footprint is useful and is why I have a pearl.

Research In Motion Ltd. and AT&T Inc. announced today the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 with built-in support for Wi-Fi, a new feature not available in the previous Pearl 8100.

Other new features of the 8120 include a 2-megapixel camera with a video recorder, an external micro SC memory card slot and support for high-speed USB for data transfers up to 10Mbit/sec., the companies said. An updated visual interface includes new font-rendering technology as well.

The 8120 is available today, starting at $199.99 with a two-year contract through AT&T's business channels. It measures 4.2 by 2.4 by .5 inches and weighs 3.2 ounces. The sapphire blue device has a 240-by-260 pixel display. AT&T noted that the advantage of accessing e-mail and browsing the Web at Wi-Fi hot spots can be used to supplement voice calls in more than 200 countries.

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azer

at 18:55 on March 14th, 2008

good stuff:

There are quite a few cell phones out now that have WiFi capability but they're not getting enough press. The most amazing ones are being sold in Europe with VOIP software installed. Newer models are able to detect an available WiFi network and route calls via VOIP to avoid the cellular network-related charges.

Here in North America it is possible to achieve similar results using available GSM enabled PDA's: simply install Skype or SJPhone on your Windows Mobile PDA and you can make calls over WiFi instead of using your cell phone. I've tried it on my older HP PDA but the sound quality is lousy - many existing PDA's don't handle sound well and older PDA's most likely don't have the necessary CPU performance.

Watch the market carefully this summer for some spectacular new products in this area; the iPhone is just a sample of what's coming. It is already clear that AT&T and other cellular providers will have to either find a way to monetize the next wave of technology or try to fade away gracefully.