RIM Blackberry to get Wi-Fi Capabilities

Blackberry to get Wi-Fi Capabilities

Research in Motion has said in a statement that they would soon launch new Blackberry devices with Wi-Fi support.

RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said in a statement that these new generation of Blackberry devices should come out “in the back half of this year.”

The market already has seen several manufacturers launching these converged devices and RIM would have to launch similar products to stay competitive.

Balsillie said in his statement: “Wi-Fi was overhyped. 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 complementary to a cell phone.”

Incidentally, their BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) already supports roaming for customers that may travel between multiple operators. This server would in the future treat Wi-Fi networks just like additional cellular networks.