» RIM Seeks to Bridge Enterprise-Consumer Gap with BlackBerry TourTelecommunications Industry News

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

RIM Seeks to Bridge Enterprise-Consumer Gap with BlackBerry Tour

5:55 am on June 16, 2009 | Category: Cell Phones, Mobile Devices, Multimedia, PDAs

Research In Motion is planning to target both corporate executives and consumers with its next smartphone, the BlackBerry Tour.

The Tour was officially unveiled by RIM yesterday, and described as a “big step forward” by the company’s co-CEO, Jim Balsillie. Although it won’t look much different from existing BlackBerry handsets, it seeks to merge the most popular features of consumer products (like the Pearl and Curve devices) with the practicality of an enterprise smartphone.

The BlackBerry Tour will come loaded with multimedia features (including a digital camera, video recorder, and music/video player), as well as global connectivity features (allowing it to easily access voice and data networks around the world), and of course, a full QWERTY keyboard.

The Tour will undoubtedly be an important part of RIM’s product portfolio as it seeks to expand into the consumer market, while staying on the cutting edge of corporate smartphone production. It will be available in the U.S. from both Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, most likely by the end of the summer.

Telecommunications Industry News