RIM "developing touchscreen device to rival iPhone"

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 22 Nov 2007 at 11:10

RIM is rumoured to be working on a brand new operating system and handheld device to meet the challenge of the iPhone.

The BlackBerry maker is said to be developing a new 9000 Series platform that will be targeted at the consumer market, according to Carmi Levy, an analyst at AR Communications.

"The 9000 is supposed to be a touchscreen device, very similar in form factor to the iPhone," Levy says in an article for Unstrung. "Which means that it is not an enterprise-friendly device."

Levy thinks that the first 9000 Series devices will be introduced in the first quarter of 2008, RIM having failed to meet the original target of the second half of this year. But developing a new OS is no easy task, as rival smartphone maker Palm has found out.

Apple, by contrast has been working on the iPhone's OS X for a decade or more and has deployed touch technology in iPods for several years.

The new devices will not signal the end of the existing BlackBerry models, with their hard qwerty keyboards. RIM has already said that it will introduce four or five new models nest year and according to Levy we can expect improvements such as Wi-FI, GPS, higher resolution cameras and 3G in the form of EVDO.

RIM has yet to respond to a request for comment.

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