The entertainment features contained on the new BlackBerry Curve
could present trouble when penetrating enterprise walls, according
to analysts in the US
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) last week
announced its latest device, the
Curve, with enough
bells and whistles to entice consumer smartphone users, further
blurring the lines between devices designed for business and those
built for pleasure.
While taking a somewhat consumer-focused tack is nothing new for
BlackBerry -- the
Pearl and
8800 are prime examples -- the Curve is the first to clearly
include functions and tools that could potentially have little or
no use behind enterprise walls but are still likely to find their
way into corporate America.
"We're finding a lot of crossover appeal," said David Heit,
director of enterprise product management for RIM, noting that the
days of toting around a work device and a personal device in a
Batman-style utility belt are long gone. "The less technology I
have to carry with me, the better off I am."
The Curve targets tech-savvy end users and features a 2.0
megapixel camera with built-in flash, five-times zoom and photo
editing effects; an enhanced media player that can sort music and
play video in full-screen mode; a media manager developed by
CD-burning mainstay Roxio, which lets users edit and share files,
build playlists, create albums, add audio tags, rip CDs and edit
pictures; a stereo headset jack supporting Bluetooth Stereo Audio;
and a memory card slot for storage of pictures, music and
video.
Along with the glitz and glamour, however, comes
BlackBerry's strong business functionality -- a full QWERTY
keyboard, email and messaging, an integrated spell-checker and
dictionary, trackball navigation and voice recognition.
Jack Gold, principal and founder of J.Gold Associates, a
Northborough, Mass.-based research and advisory firm, summed up the
Curve as "a basic BlackBerry plus entertainment features." He
noted, though, that those entertainment features could present
trouble when devices such as the Curve penetrate enterprise
walls.
"There is a real problem out there right now," Gold said. "Many
large companies do not want their users to have cameras – [that's]
why they left it off the full-size keyboard Pearl device [the
8800]. They are a bit less concerned about music players, since
[they have] less risk of causing problems [such as] loss of
sensitive data."
But the features that may trouble IT are what draws in the
users, who in the past wanted the
slickest devices but now want an attractive device with a host
of features.
"Users, on the other hand, love all the toys, including cameras,"
Gold said. "So BlackBerry has a device for corporate users who need
a full QWERTY keyboard without a camera, and now they have the
Curve for those users who want more entertainment features plus a
camera. It will appeal to business users who don't violate a
company policy by having a camera phone and will appeal to many SMB
and other business people as well as pro-sumers."
Gartner Inc. principal analyst Todd Kort agreed, adding that the
Curve will appeal to all types of users. He said the primary
difference between the Curve and 8800 models is the built-in
camera. The 8800 offers GPC, however.
"In many enterprise environments, a camera is frowned upon,"
Kort said, and that could make the 8800 "more attractive to RIM's
traditional customer base." But industries such as real estate and
insurance often embrace camera phones for quick, on-the-spot
photographs.
"Unless the enterprise buys the devices and locks them down,
they really have no choice but to accept that users are going to
load personal applications such as music and photos onto their
devices," he said. "RIM is satisfying that need by offering a more
consumer-friendly version of the [8800] with the [Curve]."
Kort added that the integration of spell-check on the Curve
suggests that RIM may include that feature on future BlackBerry
models.
"Actually, the vast majority of smartphones are purchased by
consumers/pro-sumers," he said.
"
Nokia account[s] for roughly half of worldwide smartphone
shipments [but has] modest success with these devices in enterprise
accounts. It is consumers and pro-sumers that are driving most of
the growth in the market."
Kort continued: "Most
Palm Treos are purchased by pro-sumers in small business. The
medical market is the only enterprise market where Palm continues
to hold a strong grip."
BlackBerry has typically targeted the enterprise market,
however, so the Curve is a sign that RIM is taking a new direction,
Kort said.
Another catalyst for devices straddling the line between
consumers and professionals is the drop in device prices that has
been realized over the last year or so.
"Until the launch of the
Motorola Q, it was difficult to find a smartphone or cellular
PDA for under $300," Kort said. "Now you can get the BlackBerry
Pearl, Motorola Q and Samsung BlackJack for free -- with a two-year
service plan -- if you shop around. This makes these devices
attractive to a very wide audience."
Couple the pricing burst with the availability of reasonably
priced unlimited data plans, and wireless email becomes a rapidly
growing phenomenon, which also fuels a swift increase in devices
released with full QWERTY keyboards.
Now that many smartphones -- such as those from Palm, Motorola
and Nokia, and most Microsoft-powered phones -- offer entertainment
features, it's only natural, according to Gold, that RIM should
create a competitive offering with similar capabilities while also
keeping it a player in the BlackBerry infrastructure.
"This phone gets them closer to the entertainment device, while
also offering BlackBerry compatibility," Gold said. "Not a bad
position to be in. I believe you will see RIM make increasingly
'entertainment-enabled' devices to compete with Nokia, Moto,
Samsung. This is a direction the market is going in, and they have
to be competitive. However, I suspect they will also have some
devices that are enterprise-friendly and enterprise-targeted that
exclude some of these features to meet stricter company policies.
But this will probably not be the majority of the devices."