BlackBerry To Unveil New Smartphones

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) is likely to unveil new smart phones at its annual BlackBerry World conference in Florida.

“It’s going to be a newsy summer for us. And a very newsy BlackBerry World in a few weeks. Let’s just say I like what we’ve got,’’ RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie had said at a glam party in Manhattan to celebrate the launch of the PlayBook earlier this month.

RIM says at its annual BlackBerry World conference, it will share “the latest information surrounding the BlackBerry platform to business leaders, IT professionals, BlackBerry Channel Partners, software vendors and solution providers.''

A Wall Street blog said the Canadian wireless giant will unveil some new BlackBerry smart phones to arrest the decline in its share of the North American handset market.

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Since RIM had introduced its latest operating system BlackBerry 6.0 at the last year’s gathering, it is expected to unveil BlackBerry 6.1, as well as at least one new BlackBerry smartphone, according to the blog. RIM has already said that it will unveil BlackBerry 6.1-based smart phones during the current fiscal year ending in February 2012.

Co-CEO Balsillie has also said that the new 6.1-based smart phones will feature both Qwerty keyboards and touch-screens and offer much better performance and fidelity compared to 6.0-based BlackBerrys.

In his note, Mike Abramsky, an analyst with RBC Capital (a wing of the Royal Bank of Canada), also hinted that RIM could unveil a new touchscreen version of its BlackBerry Bold that runs on the new operating system, according to the journal. “While new products and software may face mixed reviews (when compared to Apple), we believe once launched, they may exhibit uptake above low expectations,’’ the RBC analyst was quoted as saying.

The analyst’s note added that RIM may also release sale figures of its PlayBook tablet. He hinted that the BlackBerry make might have sold 100,000 PlayBooks in its first week of launch - a robust figure compared to sales of Motorola’s Xoom and Samsung’s Galaxy in their first week.