RIM Moves To Make PowerPoint Presenting Easier
I'm not much of a gadget geek, but one device did jump out at me from all the Consumer Electronics Show hoopla as potentially useful for the sizable contingent of Microsoft partners who do a lot of traveling and presenting.
No, I'm not talking about the Google Nexus One, which looks like a nifty piece of hardware but strikes me as only incrementally moving the ball forward in the app phone space. My colleague Jeffrey Schwartz has a nice piece on the smartphone market implications of the Google-branded device here.
I'm more excited by the BlackBerry Presenter that Research In Motion unveiled on Wednesday to accompany its BlackBerry smartphones. The idea is you plug it into a projector or monitor and then display a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation wirelessly from your BlackBerry, relying on a Bluetooth connection between the RIM devices. RIM is demonstrating the device at CES in Las Vegas this week.
Availability is unclear; RIM's site for the device describes it as "coming soon." However, a lot of the other specifics are nailed down. It will cost $200, its dimensions in inches are 3.4x2.4x0.9, and it weighs about a third of a pound. The amount of gear required for a business trip continues to move in the right direction.
Posted by Scott Bekker on January 06, 2010