CRN 2007 Products Of The Year

Page 11 of 12

Smartphone of the year: RIM BlackBerry Curve 8310

In many ways, 2007 will be remembered as the Year of the iPhone. The device from Apple stole headlines, attention and hearts, winning over more than one million buyers in its first three months on the market. Well, that's great for Apple and it's great for consumer gadget fanboys. But for the commercial IT market, it's not enough.

Slide Show: 10 Best Products Of 2007

Research in Motion's BlackBerry Curve 8310 is our Smartphone of the Year for several reasons, most importantly because it's a business device that allows integration with and access to corporate data. It also keeps up the tradition of dependable push e-mail access and throws in GPS functionality, high-quality voice connectivity and one of the smallest form factors RIM has ever produced.

Its 10 to 12 hours of battery life eclipses the iPhone, and its QWERTY keyboard is typically user-friendly—which is what diehard BlackBerry users have come to expect.

Compared to previous BlackBerry versions, the device's multimedia functions rise to a new level. It has a 2-megapixel camera and heightened MP3 play capabilities, 64 Mbytes of flash memory storage capacity along with a microSD slot for external storage. It supports Bluetooth stereo audio and is supported by BlackBerry Enterprise Server. It weighs 3.9 ounces and comes in red or titanium colors.

Simply put, the Curve 8310 works, plays well with the network and brings Blackberry functionality to its highest levels yet. If Apple set new standards for consumer functionality with the iPhone, then the BlackBerry continues to set the bar for smartphones in the business world.

-Edward F. Moltzen

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