RIM serves up BlackBerry in a clamshell

Canadian manufacturer of fruity gadgets, Research In Motion (RIM), continued its assault on the consumer space Wednesday, with the unveiling of its first ever clamshell device.

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone packs all the expected BlackBerry gadgetry into the ‘popular’ clamshell form factor, just as we were thinking sliders and touch screens were all the rage.

The unit features quad-band EDGE and wifi with support for UMA, but no GPS. It weighs in at 3.6 ounces and measures 3.9″ x 1.9″ x 0.7″, with a 240 x 320 internal LCD as well as an external screen.

The keyboard is based on RIM’s SureType QWERTY technology, which features three characters to a button, rather than a full keyboard. There is also a memory card slot and a 2 megapixel camera

RIM claims the 900 mAhr battery provides four hours of talk time and over 14 days of standby time.

Although Nokia dominates the smartphone market by a significant margin, RIM is enjoying a second place position with higher than average year on year growth, and its foray into the consumer space can only help that drive. Nevertheless, RIM is also facing stiff competition from HTC and market challenger Apple.