Captured at yesterday's launch was Research In Motion (RIM) CEO Dennis Kavelman and his wife Karen (along with a bold model).

The new Blackberry Bold.

The Bold's rival- the Apple iPhone.

Australian women now have a strong choice when it comes to deciding what device to use for their mobile communications. Despite the deep footprint of the traditional mobile phone within daily life, this is now being edged out by the power of the “smartphone”. 

Fighting it out for top place are the Apple iPhone launched last month and now the Blackberry Bold, debuted yesterday by Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM). 

Ironically, as the market for small businesswomen and female managing professionals ramps up, phone manufacturers have released these products at just the right time, almost by default.

The investment of millions into research and development has bred a communications tool which was primarily designed for the professional yet is ideally suited to the female executive and busy mother. Both these demographics, with finely tuned internet skills have a deep need for a communication tool to enable them to organise themselves, their business lives and their families. 

RIM CEO Dennis Kavelman, who travelled from the company’s headquarters in Canada with his wife Karen, considers the Bold’s organisational function to be ideal for working women. 

“You can be working from outside the office and the home at the ‘other’ place,” he said, and still approve a contract, organise to have your children picked up from school and do some fashion shopping online.” 

“It’s the most compelling innovation to date and we expect Australians to foster the rapid growth of this technology,” he said.

Anatomy of a smartphone  Both the iPhone and the Blackberry Bold are Internet-enabled multimedia communication devices. Here are some of their key features:  Display • The iPhone has a multi-touch screen with a virtual keyboard and buttons and a minimal amount of hardware input. It features a full QWERTY keyboard with keys for every number and symbol with just a few taps. • The Bold has a colour LCD screen fused to the underside of the lens, making highly defined images almost ‘leap’ out. The Bold also has a full-QWERTY keyboard enabling fast thumb typing.  Messaging capability • The iPhone offers Internet services including e-mail internet browsing and local Wi-Fi connectivity. The first generation phone hardware was quad-band GSM with EDGE; the second generation also adds UMTS and HSPDA. • The Bold enables users to download and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files using the preloaded DataViz Documents to Go software suite. It also has support for SMS/MMS instant messaging using Blackberry messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger.  Rich multimedia • The iPhone's functions include those of a traditional camera phone and portable media player. In fact it is the equivalent to the iPod. It also features text messaging and voicemail. • The Bold supports video streaming and has an enhanced media player that can display pictures and slideshows quickly (such as a powerpoint presentation). It plays movies in full screen mode and manages an entire music collection.  High-performance browser • The iPhone features Safari — the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device. iPhone also syncs bookmarks from a PC or Mac and has Google and Yahoo! search built in. • The Bold has next-generation 624 MHz mobile processor. The handset’s trackball mimics a mouse, making it easy to navigate sites or point-and-click to zoom in on specific parts of a web page. Files can also be downloaded through the browser.  High-speed network access • The iPhone features 3G and Wi-Fi and is able to browse the Internet very quickly. • The Bold has support for tri-band HSDPA and Wi-Fi networks, enabling faster Internet browsing, video streaming and file downloading.   Style • The iPhone is an elegant and sleek devise which solves the design problem of small screens by greatly intensifying the information resolution of each displayed page. • The Bold features a lustrous black exterior with satin chrome finished frame and stylish leatherette backplate. Interchangeable backplates in red, brown and beige will be available from carriers as accessories along with a matching leather case.

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