Research in Motion Ltd. unveiled the latest version of its BlackBerry on Monday, with enhancements aimed at protecting the popular device's market share against competitors such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

Called the BlackBerry Bold, the new device runs on high-speed 3G wireless networks that carriers are rolling out to handle media-rich features. It has added processing power, which allows it to run more sophisticated business software. Users can more easily download music, browse the Internet and watch videos.

The BlackBerry Bold.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company is trying to keep the momentum of its BlackBerry device, whose subscriber base has nearly doubled each year for the past three years and stands at more than 14 million users in 135 countries. Despite the growth, RIM faces intensifying competition from Apple in the U.S. and other handset makers overseas, including High Tech Computer Corp. of Taiwan, Nokia Corp. of Finland and Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea.

In the U.S., Apple may be BlackBerry's biggest threat. While the iPhone's strength has been with personal-use consumers, and BlackBerry has long been strongest among business users, Apple has recently taken steps to make the iPhone more appealing to corporate users.

In what appears to be a nod to the iPhone, the new BlackBerry has a stylish silver rim and its enhancements include the ability to sync more easily with Apple's iTunes software.

RIM co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said the new device's iTunes-syncing feature wasn't aimed at the iPhone. "We don't view it as a competition thing, we view it as a natural sync to an application that you use in your life," he said in an interview.

The Bold will be available overseas this summer, which is when Apple is expected to release a 3G version of the iPhone. AT&T Inc. has the U.S. exclusive on the Bold, which is designed to work on all 3G networks abroad and will be available in the U.S. later this year.

Posted in the Wall St. Journal, May 11, 2008

Our sources at Apple have informed us that the new version of the Iphone will have a black matte finish on the back of the phone, scrapping the beautiful silver finish on the current phone.  The Iphone has been a iconic success for Apple and changing the back to a black matte finish will change the image for alot of people.  The black matte finish will scratch easy, leave marks and will not convey the same image for alot of us Apple Lovers.  Hopefully, Apple will rethink this and just make the Iphone a wee bit smaller and make no other major changes on the outside.

If you have tried to buy an iphone in the past few months, you may have noticed that the iphone is "on back order."   The demand of the iphone has been thru to the stratusphere, and Apple did forecast this high demand in the beginning.

This is indictive of Apple of introducing a new version of the Iphone. An inventory shortage of Apple products often signals an imminent product refresh, but in this case, the stock-out seems too selective: Apple’s distribution partners would likely be extremely upset if Apple managed the product transition only for its own stores. In addition, the 3G iPhone would arguably be more important for the European market; yet the current-generation phone remains widely in stock in Europe.

The new features will include 3G wireless connection, 16G and 32G upgrades memory as well as updated touch screen technology.