MONTREAL - The BlackBerry is getting a new look as a flip phone, a design that its maker Research In Motion (TSX:RIM) hopes will appeal to the North American consumer market which seems to prefer the shape.
Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said the new BlackBerry Pearl Flip is the company's first smartphone to deviate from the familiar rectangle shape. "I am not aware of another flip phone in the smartphone category," Balsillie told The Canadian Press in an interview.
"I would expect, and that's just a personal expectation, that it would go more to the consumer market."
Balsillie said about 70 per cent of cellphone users in the United States use flip phones, a market he said is underserved by RIM in the smartphone category.
"The flip is traditionally more of a consumer-preferred form factor. We will see soon enough. We have no doubt that it's an underserved market."
While he didn't have any figures available for flip phone use in Canada, Balsillie expects its use would parallel the U.S. situation.
In Canada, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip will run exclusively on the Rogers Wireless (TSX:RCI.B) GSM network.
Photos and details of the BlackBerry flip phone were revealed on the Internet at the beginning of May with the Boy Genius Report website reporting at the time the design and functions of the new flip phone and that it would be out in the fall.
Balsillie said the phone could also appeal to business users, but it will be a choice because "form factor is a personal thing."
The new clamshell smartphone has the familiar BlackBerry function of secure push email. It can be used to make calls, browse the Internet, take a picture, watch a video or listen to music. It's also Wi-Fi enabled and has all functions of a smartphone.
It has a hinge that separates the keyboard from the screen to maximize space for the Suretype keyboard and trackball.
The new phone is the successor to the BlackBerry Pearl, which launched two years ago. Both models have 20 keys and double up some letters on each key, in contrast to the wider, more professionally oriented models that have more keys and assign only one letter to each key.
But Balsillie, who was speaking on his BlackBerry Bold, said the "guts are the same. It's still a BlackBerry."
BlackBerry and competitor Apple, maker of the iPhone, are often compared and it's generally noted they are each trying to compete in the consumer and business markets.
But, Balsillie said RIM has more than 50 per cent of the smartphone market in the United States.
"The one consistency is that they always get defined vis a vis BlackBerry," Balsillie said of his competitors.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky wrote a research note on the flip phone last May when it was only a rumour.
"It shows RIM is unafraid of reinventing itself to target competitive opportunities," Abramsky wrote at the time.
"In our view, RIM is positioning itself for significantly larger market opportunities beyond its traditional base," he wrote.
Abramsky had said the flip phone would be aimed at North American consumers and go head-to-head with mass market phone vendors such as Motorola or Samsung.
"The clamshell BlackBerry is likely aimed at expanding Blackberry's addressable consumer market opportunity."
