RIM: Look but don't touch BlackBerry's Curves

BlackBerry Curve 8300
(Click for larger image)

BlackBerry has brought its latest consumer focused offering to Australia -- but don't expect an iPhone-style touchscreen input anytime soon.

The newest addition to the BlackBerry "prosumer" push is the Curve, a follow-up to last year's Pearl.

Like the Pearl, the Curve will offer the standard BlackBerry Internet Service mobile e-mail connectivity as well as multimedia offerings such as Web browser, a 2-megapixel camera, MP3 player and Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger IM functionality. The company has also been working to improve its Web browser, Norm Lo, Research In Motion's VP of Asia Pacific, said.

The Curve will be smallest and lightest QWERTY mobile in the company's range, RIM said, weighing in at around 111 grams.

It will also boast a trackball as its favoured input method rather than the traditional BlackBerry thumbwheel.

RIM's Lo said the company is looking at the possibilities of touch input but doesn't plan to introduce the technology just yet.

"In terms of input mechanisms, we're looking at different technologies and we continue to assess them on devices," he said, adding touchscreen inputs "are interesting but we'll just have to see how they play out."

The Curve is expected to launch with Optus and Vodafone in the next couple of weeks, and with Telstra in around one month's time.

In its latest set of quarterly results, Research In Motion said it notched up 2.4 million handset sales and has attracted over nine million subscribers to date.