RIM Taking Aim At iPhone With New BlackBerryRIM Taking Aim At iPhone With New BlackBerry

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Research In Motion is working on a new BlackBerry device to take on Apple's iPhone. The Journal's sources provide information that meshes with spy shots of prototype BlackBerries that have been published on the Internet.

The new device, which hasn't been named, will not look like RIM's first two touch devices, the Storm and Storm2. Rather, it will be a slider, with a large display that slides up to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard for typing messages. The SurePress typing experience on the Storm and Storm2 was widely criticized. It makes sense that RIM would switch back to a physical keyboard, something at which the company excels. The device will also offer a software keyboard when rotated onto its side.

Beyond the form factor, the new device will run BlackBerry 6, RIM's newest operating system. The Journal's sources indicated that BlackBerry 6 more closely mimics iOS. It will allow users to swipe between different home screens, as well as populate those screens with the applications that they wish. RIM provided a preview of BlackBerry 6 at its developer conference in April.

Other details leaked about the device say that it has a 5 megapixel camera and it will come with 4GB of internal storage for media such as music, movies and pictures. Last, it will come with RIM's new WebKit-based browser, which is said to be much faster than the current BlackBerry browser, and will support multiple open pages at once.

RIM hasn't officially commented on the Journal's report, but the company did say in April that BlackBerry 6 would be available "this summer."

RIM has been criticized for falling behind Apple and Google and has lost market share in the U.S. to both platforms. While its software is powerful and enterprise-friendly, it isn't as easy or as fun to use as iOS or Android. Based on the preview of BlackBerry 6 that I saw in April, it looks as though RIM is taking this criticism to heart and will offer a heavily revised experience with BlackBerry 6.

WSJ