New Blackberry outed
Our brilliant colleague Jason came across the new RIM hardware roadmap last night. Seems that they’ve already found the answer that will keep us away from choosing the Pearl, with the Indigo and Crimson launching in Q1 and Q2 2007.
It looks tall, and another attempt to narrow the QWERTY keyboard. I tried the 7100 for a week in early 2005 and it was extremely annoying to type on. The 8700 size and structure are as snug as you want to go, Mike. Please give us distinct professional products, and don’t mix the needs of the enterprise customer (fast data input and a working phone) with the “needs” of the consumer (phone, toys and the eye candy factor).
The Crimson does appear to be taller with narrow keyboard (quite ugly actually). But the major change (other than 802.11bg!) is really the ‘trackball’ for enterprise users rather than the trackwheel. I tried it on the Pearl and it was quite annoying for the two minutes that I played with it.
As a consumer play, Pearl will be a huge success regardless of Indigo and Crimson in the short-term pipeline. For those who prefer Suretype over QWERTY (existing 7100/ 7130 / first time consumer users), it looks like Pearl is the only option for the next 6 months.
btw, one can type just as fast on the Suretype keyboard of the 7100. Just need some practice. I am sure I will get used to the trackball as well…