Pearl Makes it 'White'berry

Should it be deemed as the Empire Strikes Back? After Steve Jobs left the Macworld in San Francisco last week innumerable jaws had dropped and the rest were drooling at what they had just seen. The ‘iPhone’ touted as the future of smartphones and a possible eliminator of the oh-so-ancient cell phones, … well, knock knock… it has a challenger.

Research In Motion (RIM) and T-Mobile have stepped out with a new Blackberry Pearl and well if the black one did not catch your eye, this one surely will, the new Pearl in lustrous white. You think what has this one got ? Well, welcome the new age smartphone. Its 3.1 ounces unlike its cousins who were all heavyweight boxers and with dimensions like four inches long, two inches wide and half an inch thick, this is a masterpiece.

And if that was not enough, it packs in the knockout punch with its pricing. At $149 with a two year contract, this white pearl is going to send you scampering off to get one for yourself. T-Mobile's MDA or BlackBerry 8700g cost $250 after rebates and well Apple better look away here after they priced their ‘jewel’ for a hefty $499 and $599.

The SureType based 4 row 5 column modified QWERTY keypad makes its way here too so, does the shiny trackball which gives the device its name. The Pearl was the first Blackberry with a camera and other multimedia features and this one carries it ahead. A 1.3 MegaPixel camera with onboard flash and 5x digital zoom. The media player supports MP3, AAC, AMR, polyphonic MIDI and WAV sound formats and MPEG-4 and H.263 video formats.

Of course the other features are all in – contact list and calendar, Bluetooth 2.0, Web Browser, Blackberry Maps, Push e-mail, voice dialing, SMS and MMS messaging and also Instant messaging (on T-Mobile version only). Yes, the phone is quad band and EDGE enabled too. The Pearl is currently only available with T-Mobile or Cingular service in the United States, Rogers Wireless in Canada, and all networks in the UK.

So, all the corporate guys are making a run for it? Yes. But the rush is bigger this time, because with the new Pearl there is a shift in the consumer base. This one seems to be bridging the gap between on the run business professionals and the ever demanding consumers who want to have data availability all around.

Plus with costs getting lower this one is going to fit the bill for regular consumers even more. Blackberry had earlier surveyed that 3 out of 4 upgrades amongst Blackberry customers had been for personal e-mails and not to access corporate mail servers. The white Pearl is surely going to make college kids, soccer moms and general consumers smile with all the features they get at the great price.

Apple might have priced their ‘iPhone’ like a Ferrari in smartphones but this little one is still a sports car and one with lots of punch and packs in lots of oomph for the fashion conscious with its color, size and the features. Not to forget the pricing.

Who will have the last laugh? The results will tell when the ‘iPhone’ hits the market via Cingular. As of now it can surely be taken that the Empire has Struck Back. They are not going to let Apple call the shots in their field.