BlackBerry branches out: research in Motion (RIM) is extending the BlackBerry platform, adding support for more networks, voice, and "walkie-talkie" two-way communication.New GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) The first high-speed digital data service provided by cellular carriers that used the GSM technology. GPRS added a packet-switched channel to GSM, which uses dedicated, circuit-switched channels for voice conversations. and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) A method for transmitting simultaneous signals over a shared portion of the spectrum. The foremost application of CDMA is the digital cellular phone technology from QUALCOMM that operates in the 800 MHz band and 1.9 GHz PCS band. 2000 1x data capabilities have opened wireless voice carrier networks to the always-on/always-connected nature of RIM BlackBerry devices. In the last year, RIM has launched devices for Cingular, T-Mobile, AT&T Wireless, Nextel, Verizon, and several European and Asian carriers. Previously, BlackBerry devices were for text messaging Sending short messages to a smartphone, pager, PDA or other handheld device. Text messaging implies sending short messages generally no more than a couple of hundred characters in length. and e-mail only, they only ran on the Mobitex and DataTAC wireless data networks, and they only worked in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . Nextel, with its strong presence in the business market, is a particularly good fit for the BlackBerry. The BlackBerry 6510 for the Nextel iDEN network lets users take advantage of Nextel's Direct Connect walkie-talkie functionality. "BlackBerry is the leading wireless enterprise platform, with BlackBerry Enterprise Server BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) is the name of the middleware software package that is part of the BlackBerry wireless platform from Research In Motion. BES connects to messaging and collaboration software (Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, Novell GroupWise) on enterprise deployed bv thousands of organizations, and more than 90 percent of Nextel's existing customers are business users," says Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO at RIM. For a full list of RIM's line of BlackBerry devices, go to http://www.Advisor.com/doc/11581. |
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