Blackberry unveils ‘White’ Pearl, but where’s Pearl 2?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 16 January 2007 19:20

Opinion and Analysis

Blackberry have gone all iPod in launching a white version of their hot new phone, but have added no new features beyond a white casing. But now that the iPhone has launched, RIM has to ramp up the R&D and deliver the Pearl 2 as soon as they can.

Can any cell phone company afford to be complacent now that the paradigm shifting interface of the iPhone has been released? While the iPhone is a fully touch screen device, with the Blackberry offering no touch controls whatsoever (aside from the pearl trackball, which is not a touch screen technology), there’s no reason why a future Blackberry Pearl can’t have a much larger screen, with a clickable pearl in the corner for navigation, and some kind of slide out keyboard to compete with the iPhone.

Blackberry needed to launch the Pearl to counter arguments that Blackberry had forgotten about the multimedia nature of today’s portable devices and gadgets.

The Pearl went a long way towards answering those critics, introducing music and video playback on what was once effective a ‘text only’ device.

That said, while the new features are most certainly welcome, they could have been more richly implemented, with greater support for more codecs.

The iPhone’s large screen also makes a big difference when reading emails, surfing the web and watching video clips. While the Blackberry Pearl is certainly the right size for a modern cell phone, they’ll need to address the screen size issue while keeping the Pearl’s dimensions small.

The ‘pearl’ trackball is also a great feature that Blackberry have implemented to great effect. It’s works very well indeed, is instantly intuitive to use, as is definitely a better solution that the previously side-mouted jog dial.

But Blackberry can’t afford to rest of their laurels. They need a Blackberry Pearl 2, with better specifications, as soon as they can. No doubt they are working hard on perfecting their version 2 device while selling as many Blackberry Pearl version 1’s as they can, through a combination of brand name recognition, great design, much cheaper pricing than the iPhone and now the new white color.

So, while the Blackberry Pearl is definitely a pearler of a device and has gotten off to a fabulous start worldwide, the diving department of the R&D team had better be good at holding their breath as they search for the successor!