Research in Motion (RIM) yesterday unveiled its new flagship smartphone – Torch 9800 – and revamped operating system – BlackBerry 6 – in an effort to better compete with the iPhone and Android devices, but analysts believe the move is not quite a big enough leap to place it ahead of rivals. US operator AT&T will be the exclusive provider of the Torch in the country, which will go on sale on August 12 for US$199.99 with a two-year contract (Vodafone’s UK division has also opened pre-registration for consumers interested in purchasing the device, although there’s no word yet on availability in other countries). The Torch is hailed as “the world’s first smartphone to combine a BlackBerry keyboard with a full touchscreen experience,” while RIM also touts the ability to search any application, media content or contact by typing a word in Torch’s ‘universal search’ function. The smartphone is also the company’s first offering to include BlackBerry App World pre-installed, supporting carrier billing. It comes with a 5 MP camera with a flash and built-in GPS for location-based applications, although its processor (624 MHz) is not as powerful as some Android 1GHz smartphones. Meanwhile the new BlackBerry 6 platform offers an inbox where users can access updates from social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in the same place as their emails.

Analysts believe the device won’t blow away the competition, a view reflected by the fact that RIM’s stock was down 4 percent last night. “RIM is playing catch-up. This is clearly the upgrade for BlackBerry users, but otherwise not a lot here is super exciting,” Altimeter analyst Michael Gartenberg told Reuters. Online publication SlashGear noted that “there’s a sense that the BlackBerry Torch 9800 would have been a sure-fire hit if it had been released twelve months ago… Given the state of the smartphone market, while the Torch is certainly sufficient to keep existing BlackBerry users within the RIM family, we’re not convinced it’s enough to cause Android and iPhone users to defect.” NPD analyst Ross Rubin said that although the product does not represent a “leap forward,” it will help RIM better compete with rivals: “This gets the experience competitive again – if they can do that with the efficiency and stability that RIM is known for, then it’s a positive.”