Research in Motion Ltd could be about to usurp Palm Computing as the new king of the US handheld scene, according to research from Merrill Lynch. ML expects that RIM, which makes the BlackBerry and Inter@ctive Pager wireless devices, will move into Europe next year and sign a slew of important partnership deals.
RIM has not announced which wireless network operators it will partner with for the European push and the company refused to comment when ComputerWire asked about its global plans at PCExpo in New York recently. However, it has important BellSouth and SkyTel deals in the US and ML expects Dell Computer Corp to start pre-loading RIM software on its servers.
The company is planning a new RIM device with a larger screen, code-named Stretchfrog, to be launched in the second half of this year. It has also been working on extending the battery life and reducing the cost of its devices.
However, the reasons that RIM has been such a success in the US may not prove to be so valid in Europe. The company has focused solely on the enterprise market, unlike its rival Palm, which took a more scattershot approach. The company has produced a device that has better wireless coverage and email facilities than the Palm VII, with lower overall cost and monthly usage rates. But when RIM makes its entry into Europe next year, Nokia and Ericsson will already be offering EPOC-based online smartphones, with email, desktop synchronization and other multimedia facilities. And because Europe works on one GSM mobile wireless standard, the network coverage issues that dogged the launch of the Palm VII and played in RIM’s favor will not arise.
