Bunk and Rambling

I have noticed that there is some interest in when the 8700 series of Blackberry handhelds will be available in Australia. Based upon a recent press release from Vodafone, the answer is “now“. Vodafone have announced availability of their branded 8700 device to be available from March 1st 2006. Having visited a Vodafone store at Broadway shopping centre yesterday, it appears that while the stores are aware of the devices, stock has not yet hit the stores.

No announcements have been made by other providers at this stage.

It has been a long and drawn out case, but it appears that the NTP vs. RIM patent case is now over. In my opinion, this legal battle has caused some significant damage to RIM and their Blackberry solution. Many businesses have been questioning the future of Blackberry for the past twelve months or more, which I believe will now be a point of leverage for other solution providers to suggest that a hardware and software solution such as the Blackberry is a major risk to companies if all components are being supplied by a single entity.

Having seen the new 8700 series of devices, I can say that the Blackberry is still leading the market in the mobile e-mail space. However, the patent battle will be small compared to the technology battle RIM will be subjected to as its competitors start to catch up, or even take the market elsewhere.