The good news: You can touch the screen! And there’s apparently a browser that works, and something to do with a new media player. We’re expecting to see new hardware to go with it this June/July.

The bad: If you watch the promo vid it on mute you might be mistaken for thinking the new OS gives you a bad case of the Parkinsons.

From Alec Saunders:

News is out this morning that Harman International has agreed to sell it’s QNX Software Systems division to Research In Motion. TechCrunch speculates that this might mean tighter integration with automobiles, since Harman acquired QNX in order to provide software to its automotive customer base. RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis himself hypes up the automotive possibilities in the release.

I’m not buying it.

For those who don’t know QNX, it’s a micro-kernel based operating system with a sophisticated graphical user interface, a modern POSIX-based tool-chain, and a fully distributable architecture. In layman’s terms, that means it’s more stable than LINUX, runs in less memory than any of LINUX, OS X, or Windows – even the embedded versions, pretty to look at for users, and easy to develop software for using skills that are relatively common in the industry. Oh, and did I mention that it sports a touch screen UI, and a fully integrated flash development environment?

And if some useful automotive applications come along for the ride, we guess that’s fine too.

LINK: RIM bought QNX because of Apple

We’re on your side here RIM, at wirelessnorth we like to cheer for the home team. But c’mon now. Would it kill you to let us grab hold of the screen once in a while?

It feels like there’s a whole cottage industry now amongst the handset makers in giving the desperate CDMA carriers to market against the iPhone. RIM’s core market is North America (the last bastion of CDMA) and it’s not the first time they’ve done something special for that standard. For a while the only 3G blackberries were on Bell/Telus’s EVDO network.

As for iPhone-killing, comparable specs are one thing, but RIM’s storm has a long way to go to match the feverish zeitgeist of the iPhone, not to mention iTunes integration, the app developer base etc. Of course we wish the Waterlooers the best of luck.

Along that line, more news/rumor from RIM is that they will also be launching an app store. The bad news is, that rather than be centrally hosted, the app store is unique to each carrier. We don’t know the full details yet, but that doesn’t sound good for developers. Rather than Apple’s slow and inscrutable app approval process, you can now look forward to something of the same with every carrier. What joy. Now little Johnny, don’t go building any app that might disrupt a Carrier business model, whether that model be present, future or imaginary…

As Alec puts it:

The appeal of the AppStore is that it goes around the carrier. As a developer, the last thing I want is to go on bended knee to 180 carriers to ask them to carry my software. Been there, done that, got the rugburn.

We shall see how Telus handles it. In the meantime, good for Telus and RIM for bringing us more fun toys to play with and a little more competition. Feel free to send one or two by the WirelessNorth.ca headquarters for closer inspection…

The storm should be out in time for Christmas (that doesn’t sound soon), we have no idea on the pricing contracts. Sometimes Christmas is a time Telus likes to throw the other carriers a curve ball when it comes to special plans and pricing. Ask Santa for that.

UPDATE: Looks like Bell is getting the storm too, so no competitive scoop for Telus. Maybe Telus and the newly privatized Bell should just merge and get it over with?…

It’s 2008 RIM what’s the deal? We can theorize a few reasons, some better than the others. Form factor: they needed 2G to keep it thin and light. Battery life: RIM is famous for not including advanced features until they could do it without sacrificing day-long battery life. Cost: shaving 3G cuts the materials bill by a few dollars (think single digits, but it counts). Ignorance: EDGE and classic speed push email is pretty good to start with, as first-time smartphone users won’t know what they’re missing. Wifi is good enough: really? Market segmentation: if the low-end kickstart could do everything, why would anyone step up to the premium models? Timing: the 3G/EVDO version is coming next year.

Overall, it’s got enough under the hood that we think this launch will still do well for Canada’s home-team cellphone maker. But what’s your intuition? Are there really hoards of would-be smart phone users braying to lay their clammy hands on a flip phone factor? Is this the kickstart RIM needs to beat out the $199 iphone in the low end of the market? Or is this flipper-baby missing some too-important bits in your mind?

…One journalist observed that it wasn’t anywhere near as exciting as the iPhone launch. The truth is, BlackBerry customers aren’t lining up to buy them ’cause they aren’t in stock yet.

It looks like our August 12th scoop that the Bold will be “available in a couple” of weeks will pan out to be accurate in the end. Can you imagine Apple launching the iPod without product in stock? What a PR disaster that would’ve been…

The form factor feels very solid, much more so than the 8700. The screen is a bit shorter than one might expect, but the keyboard feels like bubblewrap when you tap a key. Not quite the squishy 8800 keys, but not really any better, either.

The fellow next to me and I agreed that it just didn’t feel right. Maybe it was this particular demo, and a real “suitable for ownership” model would feel more sure-footed. But I doubt it.

To get tens of thousands of white collar workers in Toronto, Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere to prematurely upgrade for several hundred dollars down, plus a 3 year plan extention, will likely take more than this hardware offering, I’m sad to say. It looks good, but doesn’t drive quite as well. At least based upon a quick “drive by”.

The sophisticated testing labs at WirelessNorth.ca stand ready for either RIM or Rogers to send us over a unit for our own thorough evaluation.

LINK: I [don’t] want my Bold on The Wellington Financial Blog

Anyone out there still kicking around with say an old crufty old handset, it’s a cheap and cheerful way to get into the smart phone game.

Thanks to Michele for the tip.

further tips: second gen pearl’s (8120 vs 8100 is the gsm one) is a little better but also more scarce.

These are exciting times for mobile developers in canda. Between this fund, other VC and Angels in the mobile space, and a number of Federal and Provincial funds/programs out there, there is a lot of backing available for mobile developers.

What do you want to build? or what’s the killer blackberry app you’ve been waiting for?

As far as I know Rogers has expressed no signs of interest in the curve with wifi. As a RIM insider told WirelessNorth.ca, it’s been a hell of a job for them to convince any North American carrier to accept a handset with wifi. [notwithstanding that wifi-equiped nokias are plentiful in Europe and you can even buy skype plans for your n95 at hotspots all over london but we digress]. For Rogers, the pearl and home wifi calling would seem to be the comprimise.

The pearl is a consumer brand blackberry. This lets Rogers keep the wifi safely segmented to the consumer market and keep on gouging maximising return on corporate customers higher dependence and lower price sensitivity to blackberry voice and data rates.

What can you do about it? Put some Rogers stock in your RRSP. You’ll feel better about it.

ps. Don’t expect blackberry wifi from Bell or Telus either. For reasons unclear, the CDMA version of current blackberries come with GPS instead of wifi.