Recent Comments:
Rumored BlackBerry Javelin specs: WiFi, GPS, awesome display {Engadget Mobile}
Aug 11th 2008 8:50PM So if RIM releases a version of this phone with 3G six months later, then would you buy that? I mean seriously, just because *this* phone is only sporting EDGE doesn't mean RIM is not planning to put HSDPA phones into their Curve and Pearl stables, but they have not even released their first one to market. The original Pearl was 10 months after the 8700 (RIM's first EDGE product) was launched.
This product just looks like an updated Curve with (finally!) all the features that people wanted in the first Gen. It may sell to people that were desperately holding on to their 7200's but don't want to pay the additional cost of HSDPA - it's not like it will be the last BB ever made :P
Motorola clings to number one spot in US sales, RIM still rocking {Engadget Mobile}
Aug 11th 2008 8:45PM So they don't list RIM's actual volume except to say that it is in "double digits"... so I assume that they are quoting *all* mobile phone users, and not just smartphone users, right? because I though RIM had something like 50% of the smartphone market in NA already...
NTT DoCoMo launching BlackBerry Internet Service {Engadget Mobile}
Jul 8th 2008 8:46AM Just in time for them to get the Bold!
BlackBerry touchscreen phone to be dubbed 'Thunder' {Engadget Mobile}
May 14th 2008 1:02PM "It really needs a physical keyboard slide out to sell to its traditional customer base."
... and why do you think they would market such a phone to their traditional market base? The Bold is clearly going to have both HSPA and EVDO variants as stated earlier this week - maybe a Worldphone to replace the 8830's. This would just be another horse in the stable of RIM devices.
BlackBerry 9000 to come in cheaper, 3G-less version {Engadget}
May 6th 2008 7:57AM Define "made"?
RIM is a Canadian company and their engineering offices are scattered across Canada and the US - their home office is Waterloo, ON. They have a small manufacturing plant in Waterloo, but they have additional manufacturing sites in Mexico and Hungary, and these produce the majority of devices for the NA and EMEA markets.
BlackBerry 9000 to come in cheaper, 3G-less version {Engadget Mobile}
May 5th 2008 8:11PM Yeah, I don't know why they released that whole "Curve" line when it has the same guts as the 88xx series. Totally baffles me.
I'm surprised you haven't received a take-down notice from RIM - that looks like some engineer's drawing that's had some hand-written notes on it, not some press package to carriers.
Nokia Siemens rolling out EDGE Evolution in Q3: like EDGE with half the slow {Engadget Mobile}
Mar 27th 2008 12:55PM You actually have it backwards - this will be a software-only upgrade for the base stations and infrastructure, it will be a hardware upgrade to handsets. DLDC requires a second receive chain (like half-MIMO) to do this, and no current handsets in the market (or chipsets, for that matter) have this embedded. The EGPRS2 will also require hardware modifications to work. Latency reductions is definitely part of EDGE Evolution and can be done in SW only, so this is something that you might see rolled out into existing handsets.
Indian Blackberry network given 15 days to allow government snooping or shut down {Engadget Mobile}
Mar 26th 2008 10:02PM If the Indian Government wants to recommend (like France) that their government workers not use BB's because of the NOC being located in Canada (though I doubt Indian traffic is routed through that one), then they have every right to prohibit government agencies from using them. But shutting the entire network down because it is "too secure"? Total BS.
Sun prepping Java for iPhone: your craplet investment is safe {Engadget}
Mar 9th 2008 5:29PM One commenter made the observation that J2ME apps run on BlackBerry devices, but they fail to make the obvious conclusion: *All* BackBerry apps, including those written by RIM, are in J2ME. This could serve as a nice springboard to see BBConnect on the iPhone. Now that would be something "worth keeping J2Me alive".
RIM patents a QWERTY slider, HTC lawyers perk up their ears {Engadget Mobile}
Mar 4th 2008 8:04PM RIM does not really patent a concept, they patent an industrial design. It may be that this is the wrong type of intellectual property tool to use (given that "Industrial Design" is IP that can be defended - just ask Coke), but it's what they've chosen to do. This has very little to do with preventing competitors from making similar featured devices, and has everything to do with preventing competitors from knocking off their IDs. Even the "thumb-keyboard" was specific enough that they only sued Handspring (now Palm) for the first Treo, that was essentially a carbon copy of their 957 keyboard design. Issuing a patent like his in the US is useful 1) because other companies around the globe will accept that a US patent might actually be something that is novel (oddly enough) though they may be more strict in their review of it and (more importantly) 2), it prevents people like Meizu from selling their knock-offs in the US, or anywhere else where the patent is enforced. This is important because for a high percentage of things, a device that is patented in the US is *not* patented (or otherwise protected) in China, where it can easily be reverse-engineered and replicated. Those knock-offs are not technically speaking illegal while sold within China, but would be if exported due to patent infringement.
Long-term, the "Patent Lawsuit Land" is really just a big poker table, where the size of your stack is what you use for leverage to win deals with your competition. Just ask IBM.
