Research In Motion, developer of the BlackBerry, plans to add about 200 high-tech jobs in Atlanta as the smartphone heavyweight spars with challenger Apple. Canada-based RIM also plans to open a data centre, which sources say would be one of the largest and most reliable of such facilities in the region.
RIM has identified a nearly 40-acre site near Alpharetta’s North Point Mall, said sources familiar with the company’s plans. RIM, which is in expansion mode, probably picked the Atlanta area because it is home to a major customer — AT&T Mobility, said Tavis McCourt, an analyst with Morgan, Keegan & Co.
RIM have announced BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0. BES 5.0 is what is known as a “middleware” server mainly used by larger businesses to manage their BlackBerry Smartphones, synchronize emails in addition to assisting collaboration between Microsoft Exchange, and IBM Lotus Domino.
One incredible feature of BES 5.0 is the ability to update Blackberry Smartphones over-the-air. This means that the operating system of a BlackBerry smartphone can be patched to the latest version without users having to bring their BlackBerry into the office for upgrading.
Othey enhancements include increased support for switch over to to a standby server in case the main server goes down. Additionally BlackBerry users now have the facility to access Windows network file shares. Also the Blackberry Administrator interface is now web based.
This heavyweight challenger should give Apple a run for its money. The Blackberry Bold 9000 is roughy the same size as the iPhone 3G, but feels slightly bulkier.
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