After much speculation, Research in Motion (RIM) today finally announced their new smart phone -- the Blackberry Bold; some of you will know it as the Blackberry 9000.

The company is calling the phone "Bold" due to its half-VGA (480 x 320 resolution) color LCD screen; which it says makes for the first high-resolution, ultra-bright, 'bold' display introduced on a BlackBerry smart phone. The newest "Crackberry" supports tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks and comes with integrated GPS and Wi-Fi, enhanced browser, as well as multimedia capabilities. It comes with a 624 MHz mobile processor which allows faster downloading email attachments, streaming video, or rendering Web pages, says RIM.

"Bold" features a 2 mega pixels camera with video recording capability, built-in flash, and 5x digital zoom. The media player can display pictures and slideshows, play movies in full-screen mode, and manage an entire music collection, according to the company. For managing music and video, the BlackBerry Desktop Manager software includes Roxio Media Manager for BlackBerry as well as Roxio Photosuite 9 LE, to edit pictures and create photo albums on the computer.

The smart phone features desktop-style Web pages; its trackball mimics a mouse, making 'Page View' or 'Column View' or zooming-in on specific parts of a Web page a breeze. There are emulation settings provided to allow users choose between the full desktop-style HTML content and layout or mobile version.

The BlackBerry Bold smart phone supports the 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi standard. It comes with integrated GPS to support location-based applications or services. It also features high-speed USB 2.0. Attachments can also now be downloaded from within the browser, and there is support for watching streaming videos (RTSP: real-time streaming protocol), says the company.

"Bold" comes with a newly-designed full-QWERTY keyboard, which is also available with AZERTY and QWERTZ configurations to support different language groups.

The BlackBerry Bold smart phone bundle comes with accessories including a stereo headset, travel charger, carrying case or sleeve, and USB cable. Users will also be able to personalize their BlackBerry Bold smart phone by purchasing replaceable leather-like back-plates that come in a range of colors. According to RIM, the removable/rechargeable 1500 mAhr battery provides multi-hour usage with a target talk time of approximately 5 hours and 13 days standby time.

The BlackBerry Bold smart phone is scheduled to be available from wireless carriers around the world this summer. Depending on the carrier, it will cost anything between $300 and $400.