Wi-Fi Blackberry 7270 hits the market

[Colin Dunstan]

RIM has finally released its first Wi-Fi Blackberry, the Blackberry 7270. It offers Wi-Fi built as well as a VoIP client (using Nortel and 3Com technologies); alas, it doesn't have cell phone capabilities.

Both Nortel and 3Com will put a SIP client on the device, and sell it to business users, alongside voice-only Wi-Fi handsets from Spectralink. "First generation Wi-Fi phones haven't been terribly good, because of their battery life," said Mike Valiant, market development director for enterprise voice at 3Com. "This is the first in a portfolio of other Wi-Fi devices: it's good enough to put alongside the Spectralink devices." The two companies are selling the 7270 as a device that offers instant messaging, e-mail and telephony in one handy unit, but offering it to people lower down the executive chain, who aren't so mobile, and can't run up the high mobile bill of a typical BlackBerry user.

[via TechWorld]