Pass the Torch
For those of you toting a Research in Motion BlackBerry but wishing for something more like an Apple iPhone, your day to upgrade is coming. On Aug. 12 customers will be able to buy the new BlackBerry Torch 9800.
I haven't yet gotten my hands on the device, but have seen several accounts from today's unveiling. At first blush, the phone looks decent, but an iPhone killer it isn't. The slide-down full QWERTY keypad is a nice offering for those BlackBerry users married to the tactile typing.
The phone has a larger touch screen, which has me wondering how cumbersome this gadget will be to carry all day in a pocket or purse. While the iPhone has gotten faster, brighter and smaller, the BlackBerry is getting bigger. The Motorola Droid X also grew compared with its Droid sibling.
A "miss" for the new BlackBerry is that it's exclusively on the AT&T network. Many people can’t get an iPhone because they won't or can't change to the much-maligned, often overused network. Some reports suggest that the exclusivity with AT&T will end after six months, but nothing has been officially announced about expansion to other carriers.
The BlackBerry Torch 9800 will cost $199 with a two-year contract, a price that has seemingly become the default buy in for smart phones. The same offering price holds true for the Droid X on Verizon and the least-expensive iPhone on AT&T.
I hope to write more about the Torch in coming weeks. But in the meantime, here's a video from The Wall Street Journal introducing the new phone:
http://bit.ly/9hDrYi
Visit the BlackBerry site:
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/
