Two more choices for Berry lovers

Zatni Arbi

Last year, smartphones aficionados would talk mostly about the iPhone, the BlackBerry Storm, the award-winning Nokia E71 and the new platform for mobile devices called Android.

The touchscreen-operated BlackBerry Storm has not arrived here yet, perhaps because Research in Motion — the Canadian company responsible for bringing us the life-changing BlackBerrys — wants to make sure it will be smooth sailing when it is launched.

Last month, it brought two new models called the BlackBerry Curve 8900 — nicknamed Javelin — and the Pearl Flip 8220 for those who insist on being seen holding the latest BlackBerry products.

Yes, although the BlackBerry was born as a business tool, here in Indonesia they have become a status symbol thanks to their premium prices. People here just buy them, brand new or otherwise, just to keep up with the “Aguses” or the “Bambangs”.

Compared with the standard-setting BlackBerry Bold, which we looked at in this column last year, the two new models are more affordable.

Here, like in most countries in the world, RIM does not sell its products directly to the end users, but through operators and distributors – who then determine the actual prices, and may offer plans that bundle it with their services.

At the launch, Adele Beachley, RIM’s Regional Director for Asia Pacific, did not reveal to the media the number of BlackBerry units sold in Indonesia last year, but she said it was quite substantial. It is not difficult for us to see that she was not exaggerating.

In case you have not noticed, more and more of your colleagues, friends and relatives are now replying to your emails from their BlackBerrys.

All the three major Indonesian operators — Telkomsel, Indosat and XL — have been offering the BlackBerry email services for some time. Now, let us look at the two new models.

The Curve 8900 is more than just a refresh of the existing Curve series. It takes after a lot of the Bold’s sleek design including the black facade, but it retains the Curve keypad design.

Its screen is a tad smaller than the Bold’s, but the screen resolution and quality are the same. One of the few things it does not have is support for 3G.

The rest is the same — GSM, GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a browser and, of course, wireless email, SMS and MMS.

BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 www.rim.com

The Pearl Flip 8220 was born out of RIM’s observation that, in the United States, fold cellphones have been tremendously popular. In its effort to capture the interest of those who prefer the clamshell model, RIM designed it to be the first flip BlackBerry product. It is narrower than the Curve, and has a front screen that will inform you of unread messages. Its QWERTY keypad looks somewhat like Sony Ericsson’s two-character-on-each-button design, and it may require some getting used to – a necessary compromise as the keypad is narrower than on the full-size models.


In Indonesia, only Indosat offers the Pearl Flip 8220. Both the Curve 8900 and Pearl Flip 8220 have the same user interface as the Bold. Personally, I prefer the Curve 8900 because of its wider screen, more usable keypad, camera with a higher resolution and a more powerful processor.

Perhaps one of the reasons BlackBerry has gained such popularity in Indonesia is the explosion of the social networking services on the Internet.

RIM has taken advantage of this growth by developing specific applications for the products. Adele told me during our one-on-one interview just before the launch event that by November last year there had been around five million unique downloads of Facebook applications for BlackBerry.

RIM has been around for 25 years, but the BlackBerry brand is just celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.

Although the company has shipped around 50 million smartphones, it knows that it cannot compete in hardware alone, and therefore it continues to develop and introduce applications for BlackBerry that go beyond just push email.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month, RIM received a prestigious award from GSM Association for its pioneering role in wireless data industry.

Its Surepress screen, found in Storm, also received an award as a technology breakthrough.

Very recently, it has signed an agreement with Lenovo to develop Constant Connect card.

With this card inserted into a late model ThinkPad notebook as well as future models, we will be able to receive email even when the notebook is turned off or is put in the Standby mode. We can also send and receive email from our ThinkPad without having to set up Internet connection first.

Gone will be the need to wait for the email to be downloaded from the server each time the computer is booted up and its email client such as Outlook is loaded, as the incoming email will be stored in the card’s flash memory.

The Lenovo Constant Connect card will be available around the world by the end of
this year.

So far, RIM has been doing a great job in making us stay connected, although many corporate employees might wish that push email had never been invented.

“Since the day my boss gave me a BlackBerry, my work–life balance has been destroyed” is the frequently heard complaint. Unfortunately, there is no turning back. As Adele said, “BlackBerry has become a tool for business and for life.”

Sumber: The Jakarta Post, Sunday, April 26, 2009