The summer may bring some heated competition among smartphone vendors. Research in Motion is said to be getting ready to release another BlackBerry called Niagara. That device is expected to go head-to-head with the Palm Pre and the new iPhone that some speculate will hit the market at the same time.
While some are speculating that Niagara is a new smartphone, others believe it may simply be a software upgrade.
Ramon Llamas, an IDC analyst, met with RIM executives this week and said they remain tight-lipped. “Everything we have seen and heard about Niagara has been purely all speculation,” Llamas said RIM told him.
“Nobody seems to be getting it right,” Llamas said of the speculation. “RIM was seriously pinched when other devices leaked out way ahead of time, like the Pro flip, and now they are keeping everything under tight wrap. I’ve learned enough that when RIM is good and ready (to release a product), they will let us know.”
Despite the secrecy, speculation continues. Reports have surfaced that the company is building on its popular line of Curve devices and Niagara will feature the same screen as the Bold, will run the same 624-MHz CPU processor and Blackberry OS 4.6, and will feature a QWERTY keyboard, GPS, and a 3.2-megapixel camera.
Others believe Niagara is an update, rather than an entirely new device.
“My current belief is you will not see any form factor changes from RIM this year, so maybe Niagara is software,” said Ken Dulaney, a Gartner analyst. “The Storm is not a good product and they need to revise that, so maybe Niagara is the software to improve it.”
RIM is focused on evolutionary changes, according to Dulaney. “The Storm was pretty different for them, and they obviously did not get it right and I suspect they…