RIM's BlackBerry Bold targets business market

12/05/2008 13:36

By Wojtek Dabrowski

TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd is launching a new high-end version of the BlackBerry aimed at its core base of business users, but it hopes the sleek device will also catch on in the broad retail market.

The BlackBerry Bold, as the new smartphone is called, is the first BlackBerry to support high-speed HSDPA cellular networks and comes with integrated GPS, Wi-Fi and a host of multimedia features.

"It’s really a step up in function in many core aspects of the system," RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said in an interview.

The smartphone rolls out globally this summer and will cost between $300 (153 pounds) and $400. AT&T will be its lead carrier in the United States.

While Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM hopes the Bold will entice corporate users to upgrade the handsets they currently use, Balsillie said he "wouldn’t be surprised if it gets picked up by the consumer".

The device will be a test of whether the shaky U.S. economy is making corporations less willing to spend on new wireless hardware. Some analysts have expressed concerns that companies will delay upgrades or cut back on spending on items such as the BlackBerry.

RIM helped dispel such worries last month when it delivered a higher fourth-quarter profit and a robust outlook.

The Bold features the most vivid .....continued below

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display ever on a BlackBerry, a 2-megapixel camera with video recording capability, and a media player for watching movies and managing music collections.

This isn’t the first time a BlackBerry is being loaded with multimedia features to catch the eye of the retail customer. RIM has actively worked at diversifying its client base away from the executives, lawyers and other professionals who use the BlackBerry for sending secure wireless e-mail.

More than a third of RIM’s 14 million subscribers are now classified as nongovernment and noncorporate.

This pursuit of consumers has put RIM in increasingly direct competition with devices such as Apple’s iPhone that target the broad consumer market.

Still, Balsillie said the Bold is aimed first and foremost at the business, or enterprise, audience.

"It’s pretty fair to say that the Bold does quite a job for cementing our leadership in the (enterprise) side," he said. "We understand our roots and we understand the priority there."

RIM also announced that, along with Royal Bank of Canada and Thomson Reuters, it will launch a $150 million venture capital fund that will invest in applications and services for the BlackBerry and other mobile platforms.

(Reporters and editors involved in writing and editing this report may own securities in Thomson Reuters and are bound by the company’s Code of Conduct, which restricts dealing in securities in companies on which a journalist is reporting)

(Reporting by Wojtek Dabrowski; editing by Peter Galloway)

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