When the iPhone was released in June 2007, Apple fired a shot across the bow of the mobile world, serving notice that it was going to be a player not only was in the mobile phone market but also in the smart phone market.

The mobile phone market responded, releasing numerous models designed to compete with the iPhone, offering some of the same or similar features found in the Apple product. But smartphone manufacturers such as Palm and Research in Motion (RIM) have been relatively quiet, saying and doing little to acknowledge Apple's growth in their market space.

That silence continued even through Apple's July release of its iPhone 3G. To date, Apple has sold more than 3 million of the new models globally, establishing itself as a world brand in the mobile industry. Whether or not the iPhone should be considered a smartphone, a PDA or just a phone with fancy features could be debated for hours. It still stands that Apple has, in a short period of time, become a big player in the smartphone/PDA domain. Has that come at the expense of the current leader RIM, makers of the popular Blackberry line of handhelds?

Fans of the iPhone probably wont be convinced to switch, but Blackberry aficionados waiting for an update will like the new arrival.

RIM's success with the Blackberry has been its adoption as a key business tool. Look around any major city street or train station at rush hour and you can't miss the hoards of people, heads down, checking their e-mail and scheduling meetings. One could say the Blackberry has increased the amount of time people work, acting as an unbreakable chain to the office. But I'll leave that to workplace studies and social psychologists. Me? I'll stick to taking things apart.

This brings us to the main topic of this article. Canada-based RIM has ended its product silence with the release of the Blackberry Bold, the first of four new phones to be introduced over the next few months. Blackberry aficionados have been waiting with baited breath for this model since the announcement in October 2007. To them, this was "their" iPhone 3G.

What keeps the Bold aligned with the company's business-minded core base yet makes it appealing to the general user who wants a state-of-the-art phone?

For starters, the Bold provides complete connectivity. It comes equipped with support for tri-band HSDPA and quad-band EDGE. With these standards in place, the Bold will be able to support the highest-speed GSM-family data networks wherever they are available worldwide. The Bold also provides wireless connectivity in the home and office using the 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi standard.

The Bold offers A-GPS so you know where you are going at all times (as long as you have wireless reception, of course). The GPS is built in and works with the Blackberry Maps software application. Unlike the iPhone, the Maps application is capable of providing turn-by-turn directions similar to commercial off-the-shelve GPS units. (This could remain a key differentiator between the two products if, as some bloggers claim, Apple licenses forbid such capability on the iPhone.)

The Bold also features a 2.0 megapixel camera and one of the sharpest LCD screens I have seen,with 480 x 320 resolution and a vivid base of 65,000 colors. The back battery cover, with its nifty faux-leather appearance, shows RIM's attempt to be fashionable.

Inside the Blackberry Bold we find interesting components and key design wins for some major manufacturers. First, there is the processor manufactured by Marvell. The Tavor PXA390 functions include an Intel XScale-compatible applications processor plus a communications processor that connects the Bold with quad-band GSM and UMTS. It operates at 624 MHz.

The 3G tranceiver featured in the Bold is Infineon's PMB5701 Smarti 3G. This single-chip device was designed for use in mobile applications with W-CDMA, 3G and UMTS connectivity. This is another big design win for Infineon this year, which found its UMTS transceiver also worked into the latest incarnation of the iPhone. Unlike the iPhone 3G, where Infineon scored wins for the processor and power management IC choices, the Bold features only this contribution from the German company.

The Wi-Fi in the Blackberry Bold is from Texas Instruments. The WL1253 is from TI's WiLink 4.0 family of solutions, optimized for 802.11b/g and 802.11a/b/g applications. This single-chip solution also features support for voice over WLAN and power consumption technology to maximize battery usage.

Another device of interest on the Blackberry Bold is the Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) part used to implement Bluetooth connectivity. This part was identified as the BlueCore4-ROM, a single-chip radio and baseband IC for Bluetooth 2.4-GHz systems. This is CSR's second major design win this year--its product, like Infineon's, was designed into the iPhone 3G. The difference is that the iPhone 3G uses the newer BlueCore5, whose die size is almost 40 percent smaller than that of the BlueCore4 because it is manufactured at a 130-nm process technology (vs. 180 nm for the BlueCore4).

The Bold's memory concerns are addressed by one Samsung multi-chip package featuring the markings of KMYFE0B0CA. This is the first time the analysts at Semiconductor Insights (SI) had come across this kind of Samsung device, which led to spirited debate on the validity of the package-markings claims.

Based on the markings, the package was to contain three types of memory--1 GB of moviNAND, 1 GB of OneNAND and 1 GB of SDRAM. Once the package was decapped and we looked inside at the respective die photos, there was no disputing which die were the SDRAM and the OneNand devices. There were, however, disagreements over the moviNAND.

According to Samsung's product description, moviNAND is a combination of MLC flash and a memory controller. It's a part of the "fusion" memory line. What we saw were two distinct dies, when we were expecting one. One photo corresponded to 8 Gb of MLC NAND flash, identical to 56-nm flash that SI investigated months ago. The other die was the memory controller. At the time this article was written, SI did not have a moviNAND device for die image comparison, so whether or not this package actually has moviNAND or not is still up for debate.

Finally, the Bold's GPS feature is provided by the SirfStar III GSC3LTif GPS solution. This IC, manufactured in the 90-nm process node, features real-time navigation and advanced power management and was developed primarily for mobile applications.

From revamping the components inside the Blackberry, RIM--much like Apple did for the iPhone--chose established devices. This lowers the overall bill of materials (resulting in a higher profit margin), but more importantly, eases design. Using parts that have been available for some time lowers the learning curve and the trial-and-error aspect of the design process. The result is a phone that tests well in development and is therefore easier to get to market.

Is this smartphone revolutionary? Not really. It doesn't have quite the same bells and whistles as the iPhone, a touchscreen being the most noticeable deficit. It does, however, stay true to the Blackberry formula with a GUI and functionality comfortable for its users.

Fans of the iPhone probably won't be convinced to switch over, but Blackberry aficionados waiting for an update will like this new arrival. And with three more models being prepped for market--including the touchscreen-enabled Thunder--few smartphone users will be disappointed.