RIM Unveils iPhone Killer, Plus $150 million BlackBerry Fund

In a show of strength to Apple Inc, Canadian firm Research In Motion Ltd and its partners RBC and Thomson Reuters have launched a $150 million venture capital  BlackBerry Partners Fund. Additionally, RIM has also announced the release of its iPhone killer, the Blackberry Bold.

While Apple’s $100 million iFund was launched last March for the iPhone-only startups, RIM’s fund would be open to all mobile platforms - not just for the Blackberry.

This means that RIM’s venture capital would also be used for advancement of mobile commerce (payments, advertising, retailing and banking), vertical and horizontal enterprise applications, communications, social networking, location-based applications and services (navigation and mapping), media and entertainment, and lifestyle and personal productivity applications.

The Fund is to be co-managed by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners. Putting money into new applications will also help RIM expand its 14-million-strong client base from professionals to the mass market. The fund will be run from Toronto, Canada, but has a mandate to invest in firms anywhere in the world. As Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO Research In Motion, pointed out:

It is gratifying to see world class Canadian companies and investors joining together to help fuel further innovation globally in the thriving mobile ecosystem. The BlackBerry Partners Fund recognizes that mobile applications and services represent some of the hottest opportunities in the technology sector today and will seek to fund the best and brightest innovators from around the world.

John Albright, Managing Partner of JLA Ventures, who will also assume the role of Co-Managing Partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund, added:

We are pleased to have the opportunity to bring together many of Canada’s foremost companies and people to create the preeminent mobile and wireless venture fund in the world. The investments this fund will make both domestically and internationally will further establish the illustrious reputation for technology innovation Canada has earned.

The Blackberry Bold is the first BlackBerry smartphone to support tri-band HSDPA high-speed and enterprise-grade Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) networks with integrated GPS and Wi-Fi, as well as a rich set of multimedia capabilities.

Some of rich multimedia features include a 2 megapixel camera with video recording capability, built-in flash, 5x digital zoom; including the enhanced media player that can display pictures and slideshows, play movies in full screen mode, and manage an entire music collection; on the other hand, audio can be played over the handset’s dual speakers in stereo sound, or with headphones or external speakers with an equalizer offering 11 preset filters to boost or soften audio ranges.

The half-VGA (480×320 resolution) color LCD display is fused to the undersurface of the lens, and the trackball is used to navigate sites; attachments can also now be downloaded from within the browser. With RTSP – real-time streaming protocol - there is also support for watching streaming videos. With its integrated GPS, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone can pinpoint its exact location and you can even navigate while on a call.

The Blackberry Bold also comes with numerous other features including: Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD); Bluetooth 2.0, with support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits (including car kits that adhere to the Bluetooth Remote SIM Access Profile), as well as other Bluetooth peripherals; noise cancellation technology; support for polyphonic, mp3 and MIDI ring tones - and more!

The BlackBerry Bold’s mobile messaging solution works great with IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise environments, as well as BlackBerry Professional Software for small businesses. The smartphone is scheduled to be available from wireless carriers around the world beginning this summer.

TIP: Official Presentation of the BlackBerry Bold.