Following RIM’s launch of a questionable new range of Blackberry handsets in Canada, the US and UK, Optus has put its hand up as the first Australian carrier to offer Blackberry’s new smartphones.RIM who are under pressure with their share value falling over 60% in recent weeks chose not to do a press launch in Australia for the new range which was described by UK media as consisting of a model they had already unveiled in May, two international variants and just two new phones to speak of.
Picking up on the issue UK web site Tech Radar wrote of the UK launch “At this media event, RIM’s maths went a bit awry”.
They went on to write “It’s this kind of “clever” marketing trick that is costing RIM dear. At a time when the company really needs to put its hands up and say, “We know we’ve got some ground to make up”, it’s messing about trying to trick everyone into thinking its smartphone roster is more robust than it actually is”.
“What we saw today was not a line up that’s going to save RIM”.
Optus said that they plan to offer two new models: the touchscreen BlackBerry Torch 9860 – pictured – and the Bold 9900. Both will go on sale through Optus retail, online and other sales channels from early September.
The Torch 9860 has a 3.7-inch WVGA display -largest yet on a RIM handset – and a 5MP camera. Despite the touchscreen there are four physical keys and a tiny trackpad beneath/beside the screen.
The Bold 9900, first shown at RIM’s BlackBerry World trade show in May, features a physical keyboard, larger than its predecessors, and is said to be thinnest Blackberry yet. It has a 2.8-inch LCD screen, 5MP camera and the 35-key backlit keyboard.
Both models run on the latest BlackBerry 7 OS and are driven by 1.2GHz Qualcomm processors.
