Amid a wave of hype about wireless gadgets like netbook computers and mobile internet devices, Research In Motion’s Co-CEO Jim Balsillie says he will keep focused on the BlackBerry maker’s core business of phones even as computer makers are starting to make phones and phone rival Nokia eyes netbooks.  

This means that Balsillie is focused on developing more new versions of each of BlackBerry phones: those shaped like candy-bars, with touch-screen controls and devices with mini-QWERTY keypads. 

“Form factor is a personal preference but it’s got to be something that lasts the better part of the day and you can hold up to your ear and clip onto your belt,” he said  in response to our question about his vision for future products. “Those are a very tight systems constraints for a netbook.” 

And, if a phone’s dimensions seems too cramped for the increasingly sophisticated media, entertainment and business services offered, Balsillie said this:
“If you want richer keyboards and richer displays you can just use perphiperals and bluetooth.”
 
Bob Stutz an executive from business software supplier SAP, which delivers business applications to BlackBerry devices, was dismissive of the relevance of devices like netbooks for his clients. 

“We’ve been down this route with these kinds of devices,” he said, referring to “iPaqs, fliptop notebooks and other specialist devices.”

“Why we are doing this with RIM today is because these (other) devices don’t work,” he said, noting that consumers want sturdy, inexpensive and well connected devices.
“Customers really have been down the gamut … They’ve been down this path. At the end of the day what we’ve really found is that if they can do it on a BlackBerry that’s what they’ll want.”

(Photo: Reuters)

*Verizon to sell wirelessly enabled netbook computers from HP (Reuters)
* Facebook to test payments platform (Silicon Alley Insider) 
* $13,000 bid for Huffington Post Internship (AdvertisingAge)

In a rivalry that should only grow more heated in the months to come, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Curve moved past Apple’s iPhone in the first quarter to become the best-selling consumer smartphone in the U.S., research group NPD said on Monday.

RIM had three of the top five best-selling consumer smartphones in the period, with the Storm at No. 3 and the Pearl at No. 4, NPD said. T-Mobile’s G1 ranked No. 5.

NPD credited a “buy-one-get-one” promotion by Verizon Wireless for the Curve’s push past the iPhone.

“The more familiar, and less expensive, Curve benefited from these giveaways and was able to leapfrog the iPhone, due to its broader availability on the four major U.S. national carriers,” NPD’s Ross Rubin said in the release.

RIM’s consumer smartphone market share climbed 15 percent from the previous period to nearly 50 percent in the first quarter, as Apple’s and Palm’s share both fell 10 percent. But don’t be surprised if those numbers change soon. Apple is widely expected to unveil a new iPhone in the coming months, while Palm’s highly-anticipated Pre smartphone is set to launch some time in the second quarter.

The smartphone market as a whole continues to grow, even as the larger handset market stagnates. The devices made up 23 percent of U.S. handset sales in the first quarter, up from 17 percent in the year-ago quarter.

Has Verizon Wireless already run out of BlackBerry Storm phones?

Buyers who didn’t get to Verizon stores in time on Friday, the first day of sales, were first told that they would get the touch-screen iPhone rival in about five to seven days.

But by Monday morning, Verizon’s website was only promising that orders would be shipped by mid December, citing “limited availability.” Dec. 15 was also the date cited by at least one midtown Manhattan store, which had run out early on Friday.

Does this signal overwhelming demand that took Verizon and Research In Motion by surprise, or some sort of problem? RIM referred questions about the delay to Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless was still not commenting by 4.45 PM Monday.

At least some analysts were convinced that the Storm had sold out.

Research Capital analyst Nick Agostino wrote in a research note that his checks on 30 direct and indirect Verizon retail outlets showed that the phone had sold out within an hour on Friday and that the company had sold 250,000 to 400,000 phones.

But with shipments not expected until mid-December, or even later, the analyst questioned whether there were manufacturing/distribution issues at RIM and worried if a delay would lead customers to rivals if they could not physically deliver the product prior to the holidays. That said the analyst acknowleded having no concrete indication this was the case.

“It is unclear if RIM/Verizon risks losing some of the significant pent-up demand in the crucial Thanksgiving shopping week,” RBC anlayst Mike Abramsky

(Graphic from Verizon Wireless website)

The BlackBerry Storm was greeted with lines of hundreds of people when it went on sale Friday morning.

While it didn’t quite measure up to an iPhone launch day, where many people will have camped out for days, it created more of a stir than most phone launches.

Here are some scenes from a midtown Manhattan store to which police were called as would-be shoppers were annoyed they didn’t get a phone.

But the company said that even if some stores don’t have Storm it does not mean it is sold out as warehouses still have stocks.

(Photo: Reuters)