Research in Motion Inc. has announced its BlackBerry Curve 8900 is nowavailable in Germany, and published reports indicate the device will beavailable in the U.S. and Canada early next year.
This device includes Wi-Fi connectivity and is also quad-band.
Itwould be interesting to see how many people would order a device likethis for their own personal use, and whether either the quad-bandcapability or the Wi-Fi connectivity would be a selling feature.
What’s certain is that the rate plan will be a factor.
Oneuser posted a comment on the Engadgetblog saying: “The Minutes & Mail plan on T-Mobile(1000 mins w/ unlimited txts, data, email) @ $59/month seals the deal.Nothing else (with the exception of SERO, or whatever they’re callingit now) even comes close.”
RIM’s press release states the 8900model has a QWERTZ keyboard, meaning it’s a European keyboard with theZ in the spot where North American keyboards have the Y, so if youdecide to buy the German version, it may take some getting used to.
AsZach Epstein pointed out on the BoyGenius Report, RIM has provided emulatorsoftware at this link.
Like previous versions of theBlackBerry, the Curve 8900 includes features normally popular in theconsumer market, such as a music player and 3.2 megapixel camera withdigital zoom. It would be interesting to see how many people wouldpurchase this device for either the camera or the music player, ratherthan RIM’s core competency, which is the push e-mail service.
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