The Wall Street Journal has an article about Research In Motion's fastest growing customer, consumers. The company previously courted business users almost exclusively, but the BlackBerry Pearl has helped open up a new market for the company.
According to the article, everyone from college students to stay at home mothers have taken up the Pearl with a similar zeal that stock traders and lawyers were famous for (e.g. CrackBerry).
"The Pearl has attracted a lot of people to BlackBerry who we would not have otherwise attracted in the retail setting in the past," says Mark Guibert, vice president of corporate marketing for Research in Motion, of Waterloo, Ontario. Unlike other BlackBerry devices, the Pearl has a built-in camera and multimedia player -- features that help increase its broad appeal. "We are seeing people who are buying the Pearl with personal use in mind as the primary use," he says.