RIM introduces the Kickstart, uh, Blackberry Pearl Flip

RIM announced its first "flip" open device this morning, a widely-expected product the company will use to outflank Apple and other emerging smartphone competitors.

With the fall release of the Pearl Flip 8220rent a car bulgaria, RIM hopes to sell more smartphones, which allow users to trade e-mails and take photos among other functions, to the 18 to 35 year old set.

The BlackBerry maker released the Bold model earlier this year to help maintain its dominant position in the fast-growing North American smartphone market. Widespread speculation is that RIM will release a touchscreen device codenamed Thunder, sometime this quarter.

With faster cell phone networks and better handsets available, it is now a more attractive option for consumers and business people to buy all-in-one devices.

Not coincidentally, the competition in the smartphone field has heated up - RIM, Nokia, Apple and Microsoft’s cell phone partners, such as Sony Ericsson, are all vying for a larger part of the pie.

Apple (presumably) has made the greatest gains in the market with its white-hot iPhone.

The Pearl Flip, which has been widely discussed for months now, looks pretty much as advertised. It is a clamshell device that has the infamous BlackBerry trackball in the middle. The keyboard looks very much like a Pearl while the start and end call buttons are strategically positioned around the trackball as are the menu and reverse buttons. And of course, it flips open.

Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM announced the phone at the annual CTIA trade show, said T-Mobile will be the first to carry the phone in the United States. Rogers will probably carry it first in Canada.

[tags] RIM, BlackBerry, Apple, iPhone, Pearl [/tags]