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AT&T Offers Broad Coverage with BlackBerry Pearl 8120

Mark Long, newsfactor.com Fri Mar 14, 4:33 PM ET

AT&T has become the latest wireless carrier to offer enterprise customers the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 from Research In Motion. The svelte sapphire-blue smartphone, which features a built-in Wi-Fi radio, will give subscribers the broadest domestic and international wireless data coverage of any U.S. carrier, AT&T said. ADVERTISEMENT

"The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 combines AT&T's leading domestic and international coverage footprint with its position as the world's leading provider of BlackBerry services to create a compelling global solution for business customers," said AT&T Vice President Michael Woodward.

A Triple Play

Measuring just 4.2x2.4x0.5 inches and tipping the scales at 3.2 ounces, AT&T's Blackberry Pearl is equipped with a 240x260-pixel 65K-color display, a two-megapixel camera/camcorder, a multimedia player, and a microSD/SDHC memory card slot. The Pearl also makes a triple play with EDGE and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) radios and a Bluetooth 2.0 chipset for wirelessly connecting to compatible stereo headsets, car kits, and other accessories.

The smartphone offers RIM's popular BlackBerry e-mail and messaging capabilities along with the company's SureType word-completion software, a built-in spell checker and a user-customized dictionary. The Pearl also offers support for AT&T's Mobile Music subscription and unlimited Push to Talk services. In addition, the Pearl can deliver simultaneous access to both data and voice calls whenever the user is connected to a public hot spot, corporate wireless network or home Wi-Fi network.

RIM's Pearl, which is available to AT&T's business customers for as low as $199, also keeps overseas travelers connected to e-mail, Internet access and other mobile applications through data services in more than 145 countries, AT&T said. It added that Pearl users will be able to make or receive voice calls in more than 200 nations.

Full Steam Ahead

The Pearl's adoption by carriers in more than 20 countries since March 2007 is a strong indication that the popularity of RIM's smartphone lineup continues. Last month, the handsetmaker told investors that net subscriber accounts in the fourth quarter would be 15 to 20 percent higher than the 1.82 million it predicted in December.

"BlackBerry smartphones proved to be a big hit throughout the holiday selling season and we're pleased to see RIM's business momentum continuing in the new year," said RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie.

More recently, Handango.com announced that content for RIM's Blackberry Pearl was among the top downloads at its Web site last year, both in terms of revenue and the number of units sold. The mobile-content provider also noted that Blackberry applications achieved 135 percent growth in 2007, when more than 11,000 new offerings were added to its online product lineup.

And the Blackberry's software hits just keep on coming. Oracle has taken the wraps off its new Mobile Sales Assistant -- a mobile CRM access and productivity application for RIM's BlackBerry.

"Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant takes a new, consumable approach to delivering CRM on mobile devices with a user interface that works the way sales teams work," said Oracle Senior Vice President Anthony Lye.

The new CRM offering is compatible with RIM's BlackBerry OS 4.2 software and multiple models from RIM's 8300, 8700, and 8800 handset offerings, Oracle said.