Thread: Blackberry with front facing camera coming 2010?

Tiny Comb is reporting that RIM will release a Blackberry with a front facing camera starting next year.
Following the Fortune Brainstorm event, there was a 10 minute conversation with an unnamaed RIM
executive. Of course the topic of iPhone came up which, lead into the topic of Apple possibly upgrading
the iPhone to a include a front facing camera and what RIM would do to compete.

His response was “as I said before, we are fortunate to have our relationships with many different
carriers, some of which can handle something like live video-conferencing”. Basically, RIM does not care
as long as iPhone is exclusive to AT&T. The executive went on to say “video conferencing is something that
could completely change the mobile landscape and it is something we have been thinking about and
working on for quite some time. You will start seeing something early next year”.

I has been widely rumored that Verizon may get an iPhone some time in 2010, which may be why RIM is now
jumping into the game. As for Blackberry, what device(s) could he be referring to? Hmmmm....

That sounds interesting!!! We'll see what they come up with...

Nice post CS. If you recall the Chinese worked who died after losing the next generation iPhone prototype. Anyway, that phone had a front facing camera as well. I think this will become a standard feature of the next year or two.

O wow, I knew the iPhone was working on this but to hear that RIM is also working on a video conference phone is awesome. I can't wait to see what happens with this. Thanks for the scoop.

Nice post CS! Great news for those that need to video conference on the go

just thinking...would this be widely accepted? this would be nice for video conferencing but would it eliminate the phones ability to be used as a camera with a viewfinder screen? would it have two cameras,a front facing and a back facing? would the camera be on some kind of flip mechanism where it could be flipped from front to back?just thinking out loud......

Thats a good idea and cant wait to see it happen, some phones already have it with at&t

Nice post CS! It will be interesting to see how this is viewed over the upcoming year.

Originally Posted by catstide

just thinking...would this be widely accepted? this would be nice for video conferencing but would it eliminate the phones ability to be used as a camera with a viewfinder screen? would it have two cameras,a front facing and a back facing? would the camera be on some kind of flip mechanism where it could be flipped from front to back?just thinking out loud......

There would be two fixed cameras one on the front one on the back. The front viewing one (from what I have heard so far) would only be used as a video camera for transmitting video. The back one would be both for photos and video.

Originally Posted by jlevy73

There would be two fixed cameras one on the front one on the back. The front viewing one (from what I have heard so far) would only be used as a video camera for transmitting video. The back one would be both for photos and video.

That sounds pretty cool. Thanks for clarifying that Jlevy.

Cisco Systems has a global install base of VoIP with their UCC and how well you can tie BB's right into it the benefits of doing video conference, single call reach, presence this would be some real added benefit for higher up execs.