Blackberry, Consumer Edition
Engadget has a write-up here on a Blackberry 8100 which will be consumer-like in its feature set. Cameraphone, audio and video playback capability, etc - due to be out this fall. The site rumors that T-Mobile will be the first carrier selling it - my sources confirm that. T-Mobile has typically been the first to launch the more slim versions of the Blackberry product line, which uses predictive text for typing, instead of a full QWERTY keyboard.
This continues to confirm our opinion that the phone handset will be the media player of choice.
The real plus, with Blackberry coming out with this device, is that BB has had the best battery management of phones compared with other manufacturers. This will enable the media play capability to have some life along with the phone functionality. As a friend of mine said recently - if my iPod runs out of juice, that’s no big deal. But, if because of my media playing on my phone, my phone dies - I’m dead. Business-wise, that is. I assume….