RIM takes the lead.

The BlackBerry 900 has landed. And don’t think this is a half way measure to bolster sales. The device, BlackBerry Bold, comes with a range of connectivity options: tri-band HSDPA, integrated GPS and 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi. Admittedly, the BlackBerry 8707v had 3G back in 2006 but actually getting a 3G connection was another matter.

What do you get for your money?

Well, it’s a nice looking handset but here’s the technical details in brief:

• 624MHz processor
• Full Qwerty keyboard
• 1Gb onboard storage - expandable via microSD/SDHC
• 2-megapixel camera
• “half-VGA” screen — a reference to the dimensions of the display, not the resolution, which are a VGA-quality 480 by 320 pixels.

So how will it fair? I’ve been using a BlackBerry for about a year now (yes, I’m planning to buy an iPhone soon). It’s good. Push email, calendaring, messenger, Google maps, ssh and a whole range of other add-ons make it ideal for my needs. The one downside is, as stated earlier, 3G connectivity - my handset seems to want to use Edge over 3G. The improved connectivity in the Bold should make the handset a real winner. Edge is here to stay and has huge future potential but for now I’ll stick to 3G.

Given many peoples love of the web the speed and capabilities of this new device it should be a hit with both day to day users and businesses.

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