Sprint customers seeking the benefits of industry-leading
push-to-talk services and the power of BlackBerry smartphones will
have a new version of the coveted combo available later this year.
Sprintand Research In Motion announced plans to deliver the BlackBerry Curve 8350i - the
newest Nextel Direct Connect-capable BlackBerry smartphone - by the end
of 2008.
The BlackBerry Curve 8350i will be the latest BlackBerry smartphone
to utilize iDEN technology and feature Nextel Direct Connect, the only
national push-to-talk service in the industry to offer sub-second call
setup and connection to the world's largest push-to-talk community with
millions of users and integrated business solutions, including one of
the largest selections of GPS-enabled solutions. With Nationwide and
International Direct Connect, Sprint customers will be able to
instantly connect within the US and to users in other eligible
countries including Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru.
The BlackBerry Curve 8350i will also be the first BlackBerry smartphone
from Sprint to offer Group Connect, allowing customers to instantly set
up group conversations with up to 20 other participants.
"Smart phones in general, and BlackBerry products in particular,
have become more important to both business people and consumers
lately," said David Chamberlain, Principal Analyst with analyst firm
In-Stat. "The BlackBerry Curve 8350i with PTT capability rounds out
Sprint's options to fill communications needs of many industries
particularly those in the blue-collar segment of construction, field
services, transportation and manufacturing."
"Sprint is the undisputed leader in push-to-talk services, and with
the launch of the new BlackBerry Curve 8350i smartphone, we are keeping
our promise of expanding the Nextel Direct Connect capabilities and
options for our customers," said Danny Bowman, president of Nextel
Direct Connect. "The BlackBerry Curve 8350i will be very attractive for
business customers who need instant, convenient push-to-talk services
to communicate now with employees, customers and suppliers but also
want the capabilities of a high-end smartphone."
In addition to delivering the unmatched push email and messaging
capabilities of the BlackBerry solution, the BlackBerry Curve 8350i
will provide rich multimedia, organizer and Internet browsing
capabilities, as well as access to thousands of other mobile
applications. The smartphone will also include built-in Wi-Fi®
capabilities, allowing customers to browse the Internet and download
email attachments quickly and easily. When connected to a Wi-Fi
network, customers will also be able to send and receive emails or surf
the Internet while talking on the phone.
Other key features include:
- Integrated GPS - Built-in capabilities for assisted autonomous GPS capabilities
- 2 Megapixel Digital Camera - with 5x digital zoom, flash and video recording*
- DataViz®
Documents to Go® - preloaded software makes it easy to edit Microsoft®
Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents directly on the smartphone - Internal Antenna - improves design appeal and durability
- Speakerphone - optimized for exceptional sound quality with Direct Connect
- Advanced Media Player - great for listening to music, watching videos and showing pictures
- Removable/Rechargeable 1400 mAH Battery - provides exceptional battery life
- Expandable Memory - microSD memory card slot allows plenty of storage for pictures, videos, music and documents
- Bluetooth® - version 2.0 with support for (A2DP) stereo Bluetooth and more
- Additional Messaging Capabilities - support for instant messaging and multimedia messaging, including audio, pictures and text.
"The BlackBerry Curve 8350i smartphone will offer customers an
exceptional communications and multimedia experience together with the
power and convenience of the popular Nextel Direct Connect service,"
said Mark Guibert, vice president of corporate marketing at RIM. "We
are pleased to build on our successful relationship with Sprint to
bring this powerful new smartphone to Sprint's customers."
Customers can find more information on the BlackBerry Curve 8350i
smartphone and sign up to be notified of commercial availability from
Sprint at www.sprint.com/instantconnectbb. Pricing, service plan details and an exact availability date will be announced at a later date.
Nationally, the Nextel National Network continues to operate at
best-ever performance levels based on internal metrics. Internal
performance metrics show double-digit percent improvement
year-over-year (i.e., March 2007 to March 2008) for drops (i.e., where
a customer's voice connection fails or drops during a call) and blocks
(i.e., where a customer is unable to make a voice connection) for the
Nextel National Network. Customer issues related to dropped and blocked
calls, and voice quality combined, have decreased more than 60 percent
year-over-year (i.e., March 2007 to March 2008). This level of
improvement translates to a more reliable calling experience for our
customers. Customer calls on the Nextel National Network are
successfully connected and maintained better than 99 out of 100 times.
For more information about Nextel Direct connect, please visit www.sprint.com/nextel.