RIM gets rolling with new Berrys

YOU have to hand it to Research in Motion, the Canadian outfit that makes the BlackBerry range of handheld devices: it is really trying to cover the field.

BlackBerries were once regarded as work gadgets for the email-conscious business market, but the latest models also court consumers. As well, partly in response to the huge success of Apple's iPhone, they now come packed with audio, video, games, WiFi and web browsing features.

There's the BlackBerry Bold, RIM's first model to access 3G networks such as Telstra's Next G. It's a suave business machine, ideal for receiving corporate email securely wherever you are, and (unlike the iPhone) sporting a physical keyboard for thumb-typing your replies, and a trackball for navigation.

The Bold is also a great multimedia and entertainment device, with GPS navigation, 3-megapixel camera, access to iTunes and other music sources, and built-in mobile streaming for watching online video.

Who buys it? Mainly it seems to be business execs who adore its elegant good looks - including a mock-leather back panel - but who also enjoy the good life.

Now comes the BlackBerry Pearl Flip, aimed at a different audience again. It's much smaller than the Bold, and its clamshell design accommodates two screens: a small one on the outside that displays a clockface and the first few lines of incoming email; and a bigger (320 by 240 pixels) display on the inside when you flip open the clamshell - hence the name.

RIM reckons it will appeal especially to students, other young people and home bodies who mainly want a small mobile phone rather than a handheld computer. They find it neat and quick to operate: you answer a call by flipping it open, and hang up by snapping it shut.

The Pearl Flip will do multimedia. You can watch mobile video, check photos (there's a 2 megpixel camera) or listen to music: attach any headphones to the built-in jack, or listen via Bluetooth stereo wireless headphones.

Alas, internet browsing can be s-l-o-w. Unlike the Bold, the Pearl Flip doesn't connect to the 3G mobile networks that are taking over this country. It does link to the older, slower GSM system, but if you're in range of a WiFi hotspot you can get much faster wireless access.

In Australia, the Flip is handled exclusively by Optus. It comes for zero upfront on a $79-a-month plan. Over 24 months you'll pay $1896.

RIM is spreading its new goodies around: its next model, the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm, is to be handled - initially at least - by Vodafone. Due before the end of the year, it can be pre-ordered on the Vodafone website.

THE Apple iPhone is certainly a dinky little device that sits sweetly in the hand and slips easily into a pocket or handbag. But beware of stowing it in a shirt pocket. That can be costly, as Doubleclick has discovered.

We were bending over, getting stuff out of the car, when our iPhone slid out of a shirt pocket and - clunk! - on to the concrete floor. It wasn't the first time it has been dropped, but the previous tumbles have been on to carpet: no harm done.

This time it's different. Everything's still working: we can make and receive calls, link wirelessly to the web or run any of a few dozen little apps, just as we always have.

But the iPhone's large glass screen - its most prominent and colourful feature - is now a crazy pattern of cracks. It's no longer moisture proof, and sooner or later some of those glass pieces are going to drop out.

This is a potential problem would-be buyers should consider before plonking their money down: that large, gorgeous colour screen may be very desirable, but it also makes the iPhone one of the most fragile gadgets around, and for that reason perhaps not well suited to the knockabout corporate market.