Research In Motion is preparing to launch a new social network for its BlackBerry App store world, according to a report in the blog TechCrunch.

The new site is called MyBlackBerry and it will allow owners of devices to create a social profile, where they can share their views and recommendations of their favorite applications and accessories, the history said. Users also can share tips and advice on the use of their devices.

TechCrunch claims that RIM will launch a new website on Tuesday. A source close to the company confirmed to CNET news that RIM is working on a social network site, but details about the place and when it will be launched were not available. RIM declined to comment on the TechCrunch story.

According to TechCrunch, the new site will look more like a user group board than genuine social networking site. The site will be personalized so that people can connect to another using the same device they have. For example, someone with the BlackBerry Storm will be able to communicate and share information with other users through the Storm.

New social network site comes as RIM is trying to get attention for its App Store world. Unlike the iPhone App Store, which has more than 50,000 applications and had a million downloads, the BlackBerry App store world, which started in March, only about 2000 applications.

In summer, a smartphone is heating up, as Research In Motion is set for Sunday, will present its latest BlackBerry device, called a tour. But it will be enough to keep the king RIM smartphone market? 

In the BlackBerry Tour defeat stores at an important moment for RIM, which was allegedly taking hits of sales as the promotion of exclusive phone carriers, such as Palm Pre Sprint Nextel on the network, and Apple iPhone 3GS from AT & T in the network, according to Michael Walkley of Piper Jaffray.

Walkley says in a research note published this week that BlackBerry sales fell in June at the AT & T, and Sprint, as these carriers are focused marketing and sales of U.S. attention to the iPhone and Pre older phones BlackBerry. Sales of BlackBerry devices are solid at T-Mobile USA, but they were a bit down at the Verizon Wireless, after the carrier stopped its “buy one, get a promotion, Walkley also reported.

But now it looks like RIM has a new device for the excitation of its base of business users and consumers, particularly those who are looking for a smartphone, they can take overseas.

Unlike its competitors, a smartphone, the BlackBerry does not offer a tour exclusively on one carrier’s network. Instead, it will be available in two carrier networks: Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless. Each carrier is installed to run the device on Sunday. Creating your phone is available on multiple networks, the carrier is not unusual for RIM, which sells its products in all four major carrier networks. But, as a rule, carriers do not make these devices available on the same day. In some respects, non-exclusive arrangement could help sell more RIM devices, as it greatly increases the potential sales base. But it can also hurt if the carriers to pay more attention to marketing and promotion budget for its exclusive phones.

It has not yet seen how popular the new BlackBerry will tour. But at this stage, any new device BlackBerry, probably better than none.

“Sales in the Tour is the key, in our opinion, our audit indicated ROME may need a strong July and August sales to meet its leadership,” Walkley said in its research note.

The new phone, which sports Bluetooth, GPS, 3,2-megapixel camera, full QWERTY keyboard and a high-resolution screen offers all that BlackBerry fans have been expected. And it also comes equipped with a Quad-band radio, which allows the phone to be used at the international level as CDMA and GSM networks. In addition to the 800 MHz and 1900MHz CDMA radio is particularly important for users who travel to Latin America and parts of Asia where CDMA can be found at these frequencies.

The device may appeal mostly business customers, especially those who travel, and existing users of BlackBerry. While Sprint Nextel also plans to market the phone to customers, the carrier plans to target these customers in the first place.

“Obviously there is already a strong base of BlackBerry customers and many of them are business users,” said Tim Donahue, vice president of marketing, Sprint Business. “And we want to make sure they have access to the latest and greatest BlackBerry device there.”

Orientation-based BlackBerry
Go after the business or enterprise customer is a smart move on Sprint. Business customers account for about half the subscribers to the Sprint network. But Sprint is also pushing the pre-Palm as a business-friendly device. Donahue explained that there is room for multiple products to address the same market.

“There is no silver bullet when it comes to devices in the industry, he said.” This is more cadence, and it concerns the formation of the portfolio. ”

At Verizon Wireless, Tour is its main smartphone beginning of summer. The company has not made much noise about Windows Mobile smartphones, it has recently started. And his last big campaign smarpthone is an exceptional solution for BlackBerry Storm, RIM touchscreen only phone.

In the BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry 8830 World Edition phones have been big sellers for Verizon. But the BlackBerry Bold, which is available only to AT & T network in the United States, considered by many to be the fans BlackBerry RIM BlackBerry desirable. Brave, which gets its name from its screen, is a high-resolution screen, which was described as eye-popping on CNET reviewer Bonnie Cha. 

In the BlackBerry Storm uses a similar technology for the screen. But now with the BlackBerry tour, Verizon will be able to offer a device with high-resolution screen and QWERTY keyboard.

“If you take the keyboard and international achievements in the BlackBerry 8830 and the screen quality of the storm, and combine them, you have a tour,” said Dan Mock, director of marketing for Verizon Wireless.

Walkley believes that pent-up demand for BlackBerry Bold type experience on Verizon network will make it popular devices for existing customers Verizon.

“We hope that the tour would sell very well established Verizon BlackBerry subscriber base, as it is Verizon the first product that is competitive with the Bold on AT & T”, he said in his note.

Despite the fact that the device will certainly be an important cornerstone of the Verizon smartphone line, this is not the sole cause. It is therefore unlikely that the device will attract many new customers Verizon. But Mok said that it does not matter.

“It’s never been our position to go and base our business on a landmark device,” he said. “It has always been on the network for us. Nevertheless, I would say we also have a strong portfolio of smartphones and mobile devices on our network.”

For RIM real question of whether the tour can get enough momentum in the market to increase sales in July and August to achieve their sales goals. Home of so many other hot smartphones simultaneously represents a challenge for the company as it tries to encourage visits to the forefront of customers minds.

And the pressure could continue to intensify as the T-Mobile USA launches have its next Google Android phone, MyTouch, in early August. T-Mobile has made MyTouch its flagship smartphone, and the company threw a lot of money and marketing muscle behind the device. And while carriers such as AT & T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile, all claim that their sales representative is equally happy to sell the BlackBerry as any of these exclusive devices, it is difficult to argue that the big marketing campaign, did not affect sales of other devices, such as in RIM BlackBerrys.

AT & T May, prices for its line of iPhone service plan for $ 10, when a new version of smartphone with touch launched this summer, according to a story on TheStreet.com.

This article is cited analyst Michael Cote Cote Collaborative say that there is a “high probability” that AT & T will drop the entry-level price for its plan to $ 59 from $ 69. Apple, is expected to open the iPhone last June 8 at the company’s World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

AT & T refused to comment on this article, and Michael Cote did not respond to an e-mail request for an interview.

The price reduction is likely to help make the iPhone, which currently retails for $ 200 with a two-year service plan with AT & T, more attractive to a major customer. I talked for quite some time that the biggest barrier to widespread adoption by the iPhone or any other smartphone as one of the main market is the high cost of contractual services.

Consumers have shown that they are willing to pay anywhere between $ 100 and $ 200 for a smartphone complex devices. But the monthly service, which starts from $ 69 for the iPhone, much harder to swallow.

It raises the real cost of the iPhone 3G over the life of the two-year contract by a whopping $ 1856, which includes the price of the 8GB phone, and 24 months of the basic iPhone voice and data. It does not include the activation fee and taxes and other charges associated with the account. For customers who need more voice minutes and unlimited texting, the price tag even higher.

Nevertheless, the $ 240 Reduced total cost of the phone for the duration of the contract may induce some cost-conscious consumers.

AT & T and Apple have reduced the price of iPhone has already doubled. In the first version of the device, introduced about two years ago was originally to cost $ 599 for the 8GB version. After a couple of months after release, Apple reduced it to $ 399. When the new iPhone 3G was introduced, AT & T is subsidizing the cost of the phone and offered it for $ 199 with a two-year contract. Price helped the company reduce the chance to sell about 17 million iPhones in the past year, compared with about 4 million devices in 2007.

For the most part, Apple and AT & T was able to retain the grant and the sale price of iPhone constant over the last year, while other carriers and smartphone authorities were forced to drastically reduce prices to attract customers.

Only a month after it hit the market, T-Mobile G1 began to sell for $ 148 from Wal-Mart. And three months after the start of the storm, Verizon Wireless launched special offer buy one get one free promotion that allowed customers who bought either a BlackBerry, including the Storm, to get another one free.

But as competition heats up in the market of smartphones, AT & T and Apple may be forced to address the issue of accessibility for the acquisition of new customers. This is particularly relevant, as Research In Motion consumer-oriented BlackBerry Curve beats iPhone to market. And with Palm to launch pre-, in early June on Sprint Nextel network, Apple and AT & T will face even greater competition.

Hewlett-Packard and Research In Motion announced a partnership Monday to enterprise customers, which includes a new version of BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0, and print service.

   HP CloudPrint for Smartphones BlackBerry, Web technology, scheduled to be shown at this week’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium in Orlando, Fla., Allows users to print e-mail, photos, documents and web pages with their BlackBerrys to the nearest printer, regardless of the manufacturer’s printer HP said: “The press service agnostic and driverless and requires easy access to the Internet.”

HP Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server, and also released Monday, is designed to enable companies to supervise and manage their BlackBerry Enterprise environment. Managed Services BlackBerry, while allowing IT managers to an external support for the BlackBerry environment EDS Services mobile workstation, HP said.

“RIM and HP are working together to deliver solutions for clients who weave mobility in their daily activities - from new services in the cloud to the managed mobile services in the enterprise,” Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Research In Motion, said in a statement. “Through our collaboration with HP, the enterprise will have access to an expanded set of applications and services for its BlackBerry smartphone deployment.