TORONTO—Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of the popular BlackBerry pager, announced a major alliance with Motorola and Nextel Communications to develop a combined e-mail, pager and telephone device for the U.S. market later this year. The Waterloo, Ontario, Canada-based RIM did not disclose the number of handhelds it plans to ship to Nextel, but it said they will be commercially available in the fourth quarter.
RIM is working with Motorola because it manufactures Nextel’s iDEN network.
The Canadian manufacturer has been marketing a new BlackBerry specifically designed to operate on faster wireless networks, particularly networks using General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology, which allows for higher-speed transmission of data and voice services.
RIM has long discussed its intention of adding voice capability to the BlackBerry. In Canada, a similar iDEN service is offered by Telus through its Clearnet Communications “Mike” service. For this reason, analysts believe a voice-based BlackBerry product similar to Nextel’s might also be launched in Canada.
