Announcing the BlackBerry 8820 — with Wifi AND a removable battery
In what had to have been the most predicted announcement of the year, Research in Motion announced BlackBerry with WiFi yesterday. This RIM BlackBerry 8820 is essentially a BlackBerry 8800 with WiFi added. In WiFi mode, users will have access to all BlackBerry Enterprise Server features, or BlackBerry Internet Server features. Unlike the iPhone, this is more than just WiFi data. The release states that support for UMA will allow FMC applications to be built and deployed by carriers as well. Let's hope that RIM reaches out to third parties like Gizmo Project and Truphone and permits them also to integrate with the 8820.
And in what has to a poke-in-the-eye for Apple, the RIM press release notably calls out this feature:
Removable Battery - The BlackBerry 8820 comes with an ultra-thin, high-capacity, removable battery that further extends the exceptional battery life for which BlackBerry handsets are known.
Nice.
Available from AT&T and other carriers this summer.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
The real iPhone killer feature would be if they would say that the SIM is removable (which has always been the case for Blackberries).
July 18th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
;) yup. That whole sealed unit thing is just weird.
July 19th, 2007 at 2:12 am
Less than three weeks after the iPhone release, RIM drops some serious challenger. While I am an iPhone fan, the 8820’s built-in GPS, 32GB expansion storage, and unrestricted wi-fi is winning me over to this one.
July 19th, 2007 at 7:21 am
The lads in Waterloo aren’t going to go out without a fight, it seems.