BlackBerry 8800 makes its debut

Research In Motion introduced on Monday its BlackBerry 8800, designed to offer up multimedia consumer features to the corporate user.

Adopting some of the features of its consumer-oriented handheld, the BlackBerry Pearl, the BlackBerry 8800 includes a media player and a microSD expandable memory slot for music and videos. The device is among many smart phones being unveiled this week at the 3GSM World Congress, a wireless-industry trade show in Barcelona, Spain.

RIM says the BlackBerry 8800 also features its slimmest corporate design yet, with a QWERTY keyboard and a trackball screen navigation system. Global Positioning System software and Bluetooth 2.0, for use with wireless headsets, also are built into the device.

The BlackBerry 8800 is expected to be available this month through a variety of carriers worldwide. Pricing has not yet been disclosed.