Expect a Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry to hit the wires later this year. Research In Motion's (RIM) co-CEO Jim Balsillie told the audience at the JP Morgan Technology Conference earlier this week that the company is working on a BlackBerry handset with both cellular and Wi-Fi wireless capabilities, to come out "in the back half of this year."
Motorola, Nokia and HTC all released Wi-Fi-enabled devices as early as last year. Though RIM has been hinting at a Wi-Fi device in the works, the company had not made any definite announcements until this week.
"Wi-Fi was overhyped," Balsillie said. "I was not a big believer in it for the first two or three years because it was hyped as something that would subsume everything, that you would get rid of your cell phone. We feel it's complimentary of a cell phone."
The BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) already supports roaming for customers travel between multiple operators, so the server will treat Wi-Fi networks just like additional cellular networks, he said. That capability enables the handoff of data connections and voice calls between Wi-Fi and cellular networks as customers move.
Avi Greengart, analyst at Current Analysis, said RIM's apparent change of heart is not a reaction to T-Mobile USA's Wing, which launched earlier this week, or to the coming iPhone.
T-Mobile's Wi-Fi offering is designed to offer consumers access to data because the carrier doesn't yet have a 3G network, while the iPhone's intended market is high-end, multimedia-minded users.
Greengart said the Wi-Fi-laden Blackberry will be aimed primarily at RIM's enterprise customers who "want faster campus connectivity."