BlackBerry Pearl (Smartphone)

The BlackBerry Pearl was a smartphone developed by Research In Motion (RIM). The Pearl (8100) was launched on September 12, 2006, marking the first BlackBerry device with a camera, media player and other multimedia features, significantly expanding the traditionally enterprise brand's market to mainstream consumers. Running version 4.5 of BlackBerry OS, the Pearl supported the full range of BlackBerry enterprise functionality. Updated versions were released as Pearl 8110, 8120 and 8130. Unlike previous BlackBerrys, the Pearl swapped the wide body and full QWERTY keyboard for a narrower, candybar style, and a hybrid keypad keyboard layout on a 4-row, 5-column keypad, with a proprietary predictive input algorithm called SureType. Most notably, the Pearl uses a titular translucent trackball that facilitates horizontal and vertical scrolling, instead of the traditional BlackBerry scroll wheel. The backlit color of the 8100 trackball is controlled by a series of LEDs and may be changed by software loaded on the phone; the 8110, 8120 and 8130 models trackball is lit only in white. The color customization capabilities also extend to the notification LED in the top right corner of the device. This LED can be programmed to blink different colors depending on which contact has called, texted or emailed. The BlackBerry Pearl was a large sales success for RIM. In 2008, a Pearl flip phone, the 8200 series, was released, while in 2010 the successor to the original Pearl, the 3G Pearl 9100 series, was released.