RIM's 'Bold' Assault On Upgraded iPhone Adds 3G, GPS, Tunes

Shares of Research In Motion hit an all-time high on Monday as the company unveiled a new cell phone it hopes will dissuade business customers from buying Apple's upgraded iPhone.

The new BlackBerry, called Bold, is the first from RIM RIMM to combine a global positioning system navigation, video camera, Wi-Fi wireless networking and third-generation broadband data features for faster Web browsing and downloads.

"They set a new bar for business phones," said Chris Hazelton, analyst at research firm IDC.

The product will sell though AT&T T in the U.S. and also will go on sale in Europe and Asia. RIM said the phone will ship this summer but wasn't more specific. Shares of RIM rose 7% to 141.97.

The Bold has double the screen resolution of previous BlackBerry models for sharper and more detailed text and images. In another first for RIM, the device will allow users to transfer songs from Apple's AAPL iTunes software.

"They are targeting younger business users who want a high end BlackBerry that also doubles as media player," Hazelton said. "These are people who have an iPod but don't yet have an iPhone and are thinking about it."

The iPhone has not caught on in the corporate market because it lacks a critical feature for business users: corporate-class e-mail and messaging. That's long been one of BlackBerry's biggest selling point.

But Apple plans to bolster its business e-mail features in a software upgrade slated for next month.

With the software update, the iPhone will work with Microsoft's Exchange platform, widely used among large companies for secure, over-the-air syncing of mobile office e-mail, calendar and contacts.

"Secure e-mail is a very big deal for corporations," said Fred Boxa, principal of research firm IBB Consulting. "They've worked with RIM on this over many years."

Apple also is widely believed to be working on new model of the iPhone that adds 3G broadband and possibly GPS, though the company has not announced it.

Though it has been on the market just eight months, the iPhone garnered 28% of the smart phone market in the last quarter of 2007 in sales, second only to RIM's 41%.

"When the iPhone first came out it wasn't a direct competitor to the BlackBerry," Boxa said. "But in recent months Apple has said it will be offering more corporate e-mail security and other offerings to match what RIM has built."

But as Apple makes its move into the enterprise market, RIM is pushing into Apple's multimedia turf.

The Bold has a 2-megapixel camera that also captures video. It comes with a 1-gigabyte memory card, expandable to 8 gigabytes -- the most ever for a BlackBerry. It also has a headphone jack, music equalizer and dual speakers for stereo sound.

Bold also will work closely with Microsoft's Windows Live Services, which includes Hotmail e-mail and Live Messenger instant messaging.

"This is really a bold effort by RIM to stem any potential losses to the iPhone," Boxa said.

RIM also announced a deal with Thomson Reuters to create a $150million venture capital fund to invest in companies developing applications and services for the BlackBerry and other mobile platforms. Investment firms JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners will manage the fund.

The move mirrors the "iFund," a $100 million program by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to finance startups developing for iPhone and iPod Touch.

"The key to winning this game is getting the most developers to use your platform," Hazelton said.

Monday's announcements come on the heels of several others by RIM in recent weeks.

On May 2, RIM and Germany's SAP SAP announced a pact to make a BlackBerry version of SAP's business software.

The day before, RIM unveiled a deal with Brightpoint CELL to distribute BlackBerry smart phones worldwide. And in April, Verizon Wireless and Deutsche Telekom's DT T-Mobile USA said they will offer some of RIM's newest phones.