In our excitement over the announcement that a BlackBerry with a camera is coming, we completely overlooked what Research in Motion had to say about BlackBerry Connect here in the United States.

In an eWeek.com interview at the C3 Expo in New York, BlackBerry maker co-CEO Jim Balsillie said that RIM will expand it’s BlackBerry Connect service in the United States.Twenty non-BlackBerry devices can use the BlackBerry service now,” Balsillie said, adding that 20 more would be able to use it this year.

The hold up on BlackBerry Connect enmasse in the US has been that up until now Blackberry Connect only worked on GSM devices. CDMA still dominates the wireless market in the United States and Balsillie said that focus to this point has been on GSM because “providers want to be able to sell their devices to 200 carriers in 100 countries.”



Now we will have BlackBerry Connect on CDMA devices here in the US, specifically those from Palm such as the Treo. The question that I have is what versions of the Treo will support BlackBerry Connect, and, more specifically, will the Windows Mobile powered Treo 700w support BlackBerry Connect? Back in February we heard that it would.

Another question that I have is that if BlackBerry Connect is supported on the Treo 700w offered by Verizon, would BlackBerry Connect also work on the Windows Mobile powered Motorola Q that is offered by Verizon as well? Balsillie did say that BlackBerry Connect is currently available on 20 devices and would be offered on and additional 20 devices by the end of the year.

Palm, Treo 700w, Jim Balsillie