Blackberry Pearl goes white

Bellevue (WA) - T-Mobile, along with Blackberry creator Research in Motion (RIM), recently unveiled a new white version of the popular Blackberry Pearl model, offering U.S. customers a different design from the existing "piano black" handset.

Although the black Pearl is currently available through multiple providers, the white model will initially only be offered through T-Mobile. The Pearl has a Qwerty keyboard with two letters on each key and features built-in IM clients (AOL, Yahoo, MSN), a multimedia player, and a 1.3 megapixel camera.

Cell phone customization has become a crucial part of the market. The successful line of RAZR phones, along with the new holiday color additions to Verizon’s Chocolate brand, underline the trend of offering multiple versions of the same phone.

Right on the heels of the new Blackberry announcement is the introduction of a new media management service called Quickplayer, which allows users to manage podcasts, RSS feeds, and stock updates, all of which are services not easily manageable with the Blackberry’s pre-installed offerings. The Quickplayer service is priced at a monthly $7.95 fee.

Both the white Pearl, which is available at a subsidized after-rebate price of $150, and the Quickplayer application, are available now.

Related article :
Blackberry 8100 Pearl : Ready for primetime ?