The iPhone 3G’s seemingly unstoppable dominance at the top of the US smartphone sales chart has come to an end, with the BlackBerry Curve 83xx-series snatching the number one position in Q1 2009. Smartphones make up 23-percent of handset sales; Apple and Palm both saw their smartphone share decline by 10-percent each over the course of the quarter, while RIM’s share increased to almost 50-percent.
We heard about the BlackBerry Tour a few days ago but now we’re getting a better sense of when this device will be available to the masses. According to The Boy Genius Report, the Tour might just be coming to Verizon come July.
Don’t forget, SlashGear and Slacker are giving away a full year’s subscription to Slacker Radio Plus to one lucky reader. Entering is simple and free, and the winner will get advert-free access to Slacker’s catalog of over two-million tracks on their BlackBerry, iPhone or iPod touch! In fact you can use the Slacker service as your own personal jukebox, as Radio Plus subscribers get unlimited song requests. To find out how to enter, head over here!
The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 was announced on Alltel Wireless today, making this flip smartphone available to a wider audience. While nothing is really different about this phone on this specific carrier, it’s still worth noting the device’s expanded availability.
In case you’ve forgotten, the Pearl Flip is a smartphone encased in a clamshell design with a small external display and an internal display with a 240 x 320 resolution. Other features include GPS mapping, a SureType keyboard, a 2-megapixel camera that’s capable of video, microSD or microSDHC card support and more.
This phone can play music and offers Bluetooth support. You can get the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 on Alltel for $79.99 with a two-year contract and a $70 rebate. The contract is for the carrier’s unlimited plan which costs $70/month.
No matter how much storage you have on your cellphone for music, there’s inevitably a point where you tire of what is loaded. That’s where Slacker steps in: the streaming radio station offers unlimited free music, custom radio stations and over 100 preprogrammed stations queued up by experts, all to your BlackBerry smartphone, iPhone or iPod touch. Now, to celebrate their music catalog blasting through the 2 million track mark, Slacker and SlashGear are giving away a one year subscription to Slacker Radio Plus, the company’s premium service.
Full prize and giveaway details after the cut!
T-Mobile UK have announced an unusual pre-pay BlackBerry deal, which sees contract-cautious buyers getting a Pearl handset, 12-months unlimited email and internet access, and the option to easily manage call and SMS/MMS messaging bills. For £180 ($262) the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 and year’s email support is included.
Beyond that, owners “top up” their BlackBerry with credit in the usual pay-as-you-go (PAYG) fashion, adding money to their account to cover any calls and SMS or MMS messages. T-Mobile are hoping the deal will appeal to those interested in push email but wary of ongoing contract costs.
We’ve already seen video and photo overviews of RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry OS update, version 5.0, but the Boy Genius Report has released perhaps the most comprehensive change guide so far. Among the changes are on-device photo resizing (ideal for emailing images), email flagging and folder creation, together with the ability to forward calendar entries and view calendar invite attachments.
More details after the cut
The stock market experts and radio show hosts of the Motley Fool published an article today claiming that the Palm Pre, though fully featured and well designed, may be dead on arrival. This information is based off of a survey of 4,292 adult smartphone buyers by ChangeWave Research. The survey found that only 4% of smartphone buyers plan on purchasing the Pre, in contrast to 37% of them planning on purchasing a BlackBerry or iPhone. There are a few problems with this.
BlackBerry OS 5.0 was recently leaked and the new firmware offers a more modern look for the devices. However, it seems the majority of the changes are in appearance only while the underlying tech remains the same.
A video demo of the upcoming BlackBerry OS 5.0 has been released, with a leaked version of the platform running on a Curve 8900. Anyone hoping for huge changes will be disappointed; there are some neat tweaks such as a new media memory display, trackball flicks through photo slideshows and changes to the browser which should make it more impressive against that on rival platforms.
Video demo after the cut
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