TechPortal

Blackberry maker Research in Motion today announced strong quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street expectations and more than doubled revenue from the year ago quarter. The results shot RIM stock up more than ten percent in after-hours trading. RIM shipped over 3.9 million devices and added 1.65 million new BlackBerry subscribers, for a total of 12 million subscribers worldwide.

More importantly for RIM however was the uptake of consumers and small business customers who chose a BlackBerry over other smartphones. According to Jim Balsillie, RIMs co-CEO, ‘about 34% of BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter were consumers and small businesses’ and RIM signed up a record number of new subscribers during the Thanksgiving holiday, a traditionally sluggish time for BlackBerry sales.

The RIM result comes as anticipation mounts for the next BlackBerry model, nicknamed the 9000 series. According to a report here, the 9000 series has been confirmed to have a 480 x 320 screen, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and will feature WiFi capabilities. The device will also feature a full QWERTY keyboard, and may or may not feature a touch-screen. The 9000 series will feature the same OS as the current Pearl and Curve, but will launch with version 4.3.2. It will not, however, be HSDPA or even 3G capable.
Is this the new BlackBerry 9000? (photo: www.boygeniusreport.com)

If you can’t wait for the 9000 series BlackBerry check out the recently released Pearl 8120. It’s got built-in WiFi, media player, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and provides BlackBerry email in a small package. In my testing the interface improvements over the original Pearl 8100 make a significant difference, and the the on-screen font rendering finally gives the Pearl a more graphically rich UI feel.

Source : APCMag.com

Apple has threatened its “Premium Resellers” with losing their accreditation if they speak to customers about the iPhone, which is not yet officially available in Australia.”Under NO CIRCUMSTANCE is anyone to offer any form of support to customers for the iPhone, either inside or outside of business hours,” one reseller told its staff in an email.

“Doing so is in breach of our Apple Premium Reseller agreement.

The reseller said staff could be subjected to disciplinary action “including termination” if they helped a customer with an iPhone, even in their private time.

Apple Australia did not deny it had threatened resellers with retaliation if they helped customers with iPhones.

Spokesperson Fiona Martin said, “As with any concerns that users have with Apple products we recommend they contact us directly on 133 622 for resolution. This holds true for iPhone issues which we are able to re-route support needs to their country of origin should they have support needs whilst travelling with their iPhone.”

APC queried why it was necessary to exclude resellers from helping customers if they were able to, and Martin responded, “The iPhone does not have telecommunications certification in Australia at this time. Until certification is granted support must be handled by the country of origin.”

Despite Apple Australia’s official explanation, the real reason resellers are being banned from helping customers with iPhones is more likely to do with the difficulty Apple is having in stopping iPhones being sold to unlockers and used freely on any network.

The company is engaged in a cat-and-mouse battle with hackers, made harder by the fact that unlocking has become a thriving black-market business for mobile phone shops and electronics retailers.

Apple’s latest move against accredited retailers is probably an attempt to ensure they don’t do anything to help customers unlock their iPhones. Each unlocked iPhone deprives Apple of hundreds of dollars of extra profit, in the form of kickbacks from their official telco partners when a customer activates a mobile contract.