BlackBerry Tour: What’s the point?

Research In Motion recently unveiled its latest BlackBerry model, the CDMA-compatible BlackBerry Tour.  Since the announcement, the Tour has already been confirmed for both Sprint and Verizon Wireless at a price of around $200 (with a two-year contract and after rebates, of course).  The major upgrade over previous BlackBerry models seems to be in the camera, begging the question - is a better camera really worth an upgrade to a new BlackBerry?

Here are the specs from the official Research In Motion press release:

• 3.2 MP camera with flash, variable zoom, image stabilization, autofocus and video recording*
• Full HTML web browser, including support for streaming audio and video (RTSP)
• Advanced media player for videos, pictures and music, a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and support for the Bluetooth® Stereo Audio Profile (A2DP/AVCRP)
• 256MB Flash memory
• Expandable memory via hot swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot, supporting cards of up to 16 GB today and expected to support next generation 32GB cards when available
• Built-in GPS with support for geotagging, BlackBerry® Maps and other location based applications and services
• BlackBerry®  Media Sync allows customers to quickly and easily synch music from iTunes® and Windows Media Player with the smartphone**
• Premium phone features including voice activated dialing, enhanced background noise cancellation, a low-distortion speakerphone, and Bluetooth (2.0) support for hands-free use with headsets, car kits, stereo headsets and other Bluetooth peripherals
• Preloaded DataViz® Documents to Go®,  allowing users to edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset
• Easy mobile access to Facebook®, MySpace and Flickr®, as well as popular instant messaging services including BlackBerry® Messenger, Yahoo!® IM, AIM®, Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger™
• Support for BlackBerry App World™, featuring a broad and growing catalog of third-party mobile applications developed specifically for BlackBerry smartphones. Categories include travel, productivity, entertainment, games, social networking & sharing, news & weather, and more
• BlackBerry® Internet Service allows access to up to 10 supported personal and corporate email accounts, including most popular ISP email accounts
• BlackBerry® Enterprise Server provides advanced security and IT administration features within IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Microsoft® Exchange and Novell® GroupWise® environments
• Removable and rechargeable 1400 mAhr battery for 5 hours of talk time and 14 days of standby time

I really wish there was something here that jumped out at me but, the fact is, this has all been done in previous BlackBerry models.  At least Apple added a couple new features and bumped up the speed and RAM of the new iPhone 3G S!  Research In Motion seems to be content pumping out similarly-featured smartphones - what it really needs to do is work harder on a serious challenger to the iPhone.

June 16th, 2009 by Shawn Farner | Posted in Uncategorized | (0)