Date:15/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/15/stories/2006101500181100.htm

National

Portable office from phone-pc `sangam'

Anand Parthasarathy

This Blackberry gels well with corporate networks

BANGALORE: Is that a souped up mobile phone with a few computer features? Or, a pocket PC with wireless telephony thrown in? It may soon be impossible to tell. The phone-PC `sangam' or convergence has created a number of devices that seamlessly merge the twin worlds of computers and communication.

Blackberry, the pioneer product from Canada, in the niche called `smart phone,' has just launched a new handset for India that allows executives on the move — or the merely footloose — to browse the Internet, send and receive emails, integrate smoothly with their office networks and access all productivity applications they might have in their home PC or corporate desktop machine. And oh yes, the Blackberry 7130g also produces great voice quality when you use it as a mere phone.

In recent days, the parent company, Research In Motion (RIM), has expanded its presence in India. Its products and services are available both with Airtel and more recently through Hutch in some circles — Punjab and Haryana — for a start. There is speculation that the company may also announce a tie-up with Reliance.

That will drastically extend the Indian footprint of Blackberry, which, since its global launch in 1999, has acquired over 5.5 million subscribers and made its brand name something that the globe trotting hotshot executive is proud to mouth. "I'll Blackberry you from Singapore," is their way of displaying their high-tech, always-connected status. The Hindu was provided with one of the first 7130g handsets for evaluation.

`Smart' software

The size seems to have shrunk marginally since the chunky smart phones first hit the market.

The access to the Internet via the mobile service provider (we were given a set with an Airtel connection) is smooth and intuitive. The small keyboard is a clever compromise between a full QWERTY computer and a typewriter keyboard and a numeric pad that mobile phones provide to send text messages. There is a key for every letter, but some of them double up for the numerals.

The software is supposed to be `smart:' it tries to anticipate what you are typing and complete the word... not always with success. Apparently, one has to use this Blackberry for sometime before it learns your writing quirks — just as one house-trains a pet dog.

The 7130g uses the latest Intel XScale chip and 64 megabytes of Flash memory as well as 16 MB of Random Access Memory, not a great deal but adequate for most mobile office applications. It costs just under Rs. 24,000, which is almost as much as a good desktop PC. But one has to pay a price for shrinking it all to pocket size.

In India, RIM is reaching out not just to owners of the Blackberry but also to other smart phone users, through its Enterprise Server, a canny move to carve out a larger market for its services.

This may soon be put to the test. Palm, one of the early pocket PC players, has just launched its latest `Treo' phone aimed for the first time at non-corporate users.

Other smart phone makers can also be expected to address the Indian market, now that the Government has started the process of licensing 3G or third generation spectrum that all the main mobile providers are bidding for. For the customer on the move, it may be a case of "the more the merrier (and cheaper)."