Its ability to make emails available on the road turned the humble BlackBerry into a must-have business gadget and spawned a legion of workers who wouldn't want to go anywhere without their "Crackberries".

There are now more than 14 million BlackBerry users in 135 countries, mainly corporate or business types.

Fast-forward to 2008, with the availability of high-speed mobile data services such as HSDPA, conventional 3G and WiFi, and the thought of a device that only accesses emails on the go seems almost quaint.

Mobile internet browsing, music and video streaming and live television have upped the ante in the smartphone marketplace, creating a gaggle of challengers to the BlackBerry's reign as most popular business gadget. These mobile data services have added a new generation to the smartphone set, and manufacturers new and old are responding.

The stage is set for an intriguing contest in the second half of this year as manufacturers roll out a new generation of smartphones in hoped of attracting more users and capturing market share while they're at it.

Probably the most anticipated entrant in Australia is Apple's touchscreen iPhone, but there will be no shortage of challengers to it. Little is confirmed about the iPhone's launch here beyond the fact it will be here by the end of the year, perhaps even in the next few months, and a number of carriers, such as Optus and Vodafone, will offer it.

Even the final form it will take is unconfirmed, although expectations are that it will be a 3G version, to be announced by Apple this month.

Rather more is known about the devices that will be ranged against it.

Research in Motion, the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry, and Taiwan's HTC, have released details of smartphone devices due to hit the market in the second half of 2008. RIM Asia-Pacific vice-president Greg Wade says the company is relishing the prospect of a growing smartphone market.

"The smartphone market is growing very quickly and that's a great opportunity for everyone, but especially RIM," Wade says. "People are realising what smartphones mean to them and seeing how they can be used beyond the common applications. If you look back at RIM's history and lineage, we established the category for wireless data, and the relevance of email to the mobile environment.

"Now, carriers around the world are getting more and more wireless data applications in their portfolios."

RIM's contender against the iPhone, announced last month, will be the BlackBerry Bold. No sales date or carrier partners have been announced for it here, but the company has revealed much of the technical detail.

The Bold will be a premium unit in black, chrome and leather casing, with a full QWERTY keyboard.

It reportedly has a very sharp screen and will support HSDPA 3G and WiFi, as well as integrated GPS.

Its high-speed wireless connectivity in particular will lift its range of uses from previous BlackBerry models into areas such as fast internet browsing and streaming video. Such features will be accessible even while the user is speaking on the phone part of the device. "The importance of the Bold is not just look and feel, but what it means for productivity ," Wade says.

"Individuals and corporations are looking at more ways to mobilise how they run their lives and businesses.

"That means ever-increasing growth in applications and the use of mobility. People are looking for ways to expand the old telecoms environment we are all used to, and replicate those applications for the mobile environment."

Wade says the BlackBerry Bold is a balance between RIM's traditional strengths in the workplace and meeting the needs of users for applications that go beyond the workplace. "BlackBerry is highly applicable in the workplace, and we're looking at expanding that outside," he says. "In the early days, the drive for us was in enterprise and government, then small businesses, which is always a great market, started to get into the BlackBerry experience.

"Now we're taking it even further and looking at individual buyers and users.

"The Bold is for individuals looking for strength in workplace functionality but also wanting to connect that with social and out-of-work relationships."

"What is really important to us is to continue to respect our lineage from the enterprise environment and build on it."

Wade nominates social networking as an area ripe for smartphones such as the BlackBerry. RIM last year announced a platform for Facebook users. By April this year, he says, that service had already surpassed 1 million downloads and was still growing.

Taiwanese manufacturer HTC, meanwhile, has been slowly building up a large range of devices to carve out a niche between mobile phones and computers.

This month it is expected to start selling its Touch Diamond smartphone, a 3G unit also incorporating one of the major attractions of Apple's iPhone - a touchscreen interface.

With internet connection speeds up to 7.2Mbps, the Diamond will offer push email as well as fast access to images, music and video on its 2.8in display - large by mobile device standards.

The Diamond represents an enhancement to the company's existing Touch smartphone range, which to date has sold more than 3 million units globally.

The Touch Diamond, like the iPhone, has touchscreen controls, but RIM has yet to make the leap to such an interface.

It is rumoured that RIM will adopt such controls in a future model, possibly named the BlackBerry Thunder, to be launched towards the end of the year.

Such consumer-friendly features are obviously drivers of applications, RIM's Wade says, but carriers and support are most important for smartphones.

[www.australianit.news.com.au]