Despite protestations from its citizens and dire warnings from RIM, Saudi Arabia held fast to its stance that RIM should shut off Blackberry data services in the country today. The handset manufacturer complied around 4AM this morning.

Approximately 700,000 Saudis use (well, formerly used) Blackberry services on a day-to-day basis. The big stink around the situation is that RIM was unwilling to host a data center in Saudi Arabia, instead sending data out to its Canadian servers. Other countries take issue with it as well. Over the coming months, the UAE will definitely be shutting down services and India and Lebanon have talked about doing the same.

If RIM didn’t comply, the company would have been fined $1.3 million.

Don’t let all the news about the new iPhone get you down, Blackberry fans. RIM is still alive and well, delivering handsets you can love. To celebrate the non-Apple fanboys among us, we’ve put together a Blackberry accessory pack giveaway on our parent site, Bullz-Eye.com. I’ve posted the rules here but you’ll want to get a full look at our contest page on Bullz-Eye.

If eligible, you’ll be entered to win a pair of Urbanears Tanto headphones, a Joby Gorillamobile tripod, an iSkin Vibe phone case, and the RichardSolo 1800, a pocket-sized USB batterybackup that also boasts a laser pointer. Just be sure to enter before May 19th!

If you want to enter to win this item, please send an email to:

contests@bullz-eye.com

Please put the name of the item in the subject line of the email and include your full name & address in the body of the email.

Limit one entry by email per promotion. Please do not abuse this rule. If multiple emails are consistently sent from the same address for a particular promotion, that email address will be blocked from all future Bullz-Eye.com giveaways.

We do not share your email and personal information with anybody. Click here for our privacy policy.

You must be at least 18 years old to have a chance to win.

Winners will be selected by Bullz-Eye.com at random. Your chances of winning depend upon the number of items we have to give away and the number of entries we receive while the promotion is posted on Bullz-Eye.com.

Void where prohibited.

CONTEST ENDS: MAY 19, 2010

Despite slow sales growth over the past three months, the iPhone is still fresh in the minds of most smartphone users. So fresh that a lot of them wish they owned Apple’s handset instead of their own. A new study from market research firm Crowd Science shows that 40 percent of Blackberry users will be switching to an iPhone when their current plans are up.

It’s not just the iPhone. Some 32 percent of Blackberry users said they would switch out for a Nexus One when the time came. The real trouble, it seems, is RIM’s platform. While Android and Apple’s iPhone OS have matured into serious entertainment platforms, RIM has tried to rally a stalwart defense of its corporate clientele. Oddly enough, that defense has looked like offering more of the same that made the Blackberry a success in a pre-iPhone world.

It’s already too late for RIM to turn this ship around. The company needs a new operating system and a completely different pitch, neither of which are likely to happen in the next six months. By then the defectors will really start to hurt. Don’t bet on Android or iPhone users heading RIM’s direction, either. Some 90 percent of those users plan to stick with their current platform.

It’s funny how one success story can send the world into a frenzy. The iPhone has been an undisputed success, gobbling up market share by the full percentage point. It’s not unstoppable, though. As the latest comScore stats show, actually, sales growth is nearly nonexistent.

Let’s start with the good news, though. Apple is sitting at 25% market share – an incredible number for such a young presence in the market. This is the number that had everyone scared. The bad news for Apple is that it has stopped growing. Relative to the market, the last three months have only been up .3% for Apple. Compare that to RIM who’s up 1.7% on its 41.3% market share in October of last year. Android more than doubled in the last three months, granted only from 2.8% to 7.1% but that is still massive growth.

Part of the problem is no doubt that Apple has conditioned the world to believe every summer will bring a new iPhone. If that’s not the case in 2010, we might see some very stagnant iPhone numbers before year’s end.

Source: comScore

I’m fairly certain that my first reaction on seeing my wife suddenly go into serious labor would be panic. And the furthest thing from my mind would be, “oh, I’ll just deliver this little guy.” That’s not happening. For Leroy Smith, though, there wasn’t a second thought. He fired up Google on the old Blackberry and delivered his fourth child while the family’s midwife was en route.

Upon arrival, all the midwife had to do was clamp and cut the umbilical cord. The newest Smith was born without incident. According to the UK’s Sun:

Leroy said before the birth of Mahalia on December 1, his wife disapproved of his BlackBerry because he was always playing with it but now she has “changed her tune”.

Smith says he’s told the story over and over, and that his other children are proud. They should be. Delivering a baby is no easy task, let alone doing it without a single hang-up.

Source: Sun

Starting tomorrow, Walmart’s offering a pretty nice deal for new Blackberry owners. When you purchase a new Blackberry, either in the store or online, you’ll get a $100 gift, which you’ll likely then blow on chargers and other accessories. It’s a great deal, and it runs through the end of next week.

The deal works like a rebate for online purchases, so you’re waiting 4-6 weeks for your card, but in-store purchases get the gift card instantly. And yes, this is for two-year contracts only.

As for the phones you can get, Walmart carries the following Blackberry devices:

- AT&T Curve 8310
- AT&T Bold 9000
- Sprint Curve 8330
- T-Mobile 8520
- T-Mobile Pearl 8120
- Verizon Storm
- Verizon Storm II

Again, deal runs from the 14th to the 21st.

Verizon made a quiet little announcement yesterday – the Blackberry Storm 2 will be out tomorrow, October 28th. The news follows a year of leaks, so it’s not much of a surprise. It’s odd, though, that Big Red is so nonchalant about the release. The original Storm wasn’t quite the hit it was supposed to be, but the Storm 2 is supposed to have fixed most of the original problems.

Part of the Storm 2’s problem is that it’s been almost universally panned. The GPS is supposedly awful and the Blackberry OS 5.0 has a tendency to reset spontaneously on the 9550. There’s also the fact that the Blackberry OS continues to age while systems like the iPhone OS and Android are doing a better job of growing alongside the devices they support.

As for positive additions, the Storm 2 finally adds WiFi and makes a big improvement on the original’s touchscreen. The Storm 2 will run $179.99 on contract after a $100 mail-in rebate.

Engadget got an early look at some accessories for the Blackberry Storm 2 today. It’s just more in a year-long string of leaks that point to a release some time this month, maybe even some time this week. The shots from Best Buy are just some silicone skins, but none of the material can seem to agree on a name for the device.

The accessory packaging shows 9550, the numeric nomenclature for the device, Storm II (is there a Storm III in the works?) and even Odin, which used to be the product’s code name. The three names show up right next to one another, apparently to assuage any doubt about just which device the skins are for. That a major retail chain has them, though, almost definitely points to a release date in the near future.

Blackberry is notoriously skimpy on their Mac support. Every time they roll out a new feature it seems the comments always go, “Great! But what about Mac?” Beg no longer, you Mac/Blackberry users – the Desktop Manager is coming this September.

Shocked with disbelief? Don’t be. It’s a full-fledged version of Desktop Manager – the same thing that runs on PCs. I know, I know, it’s been a long, hard road, and there have been plenty of tears along the way. It’s all over this September, though. You’ll be getting all sorts of new goodies, like iTunes sync for music, calendars, notes, everything really. You’ll also have application support, software updates, the ability to backup and restore your phone (with encrypted backups), and you can even manage multiple devices from the same machine. Now that’s what I’m talking about!

You may have noticed a theme here – the word September with no proceeding date. That’s because there isn’t one. Blackberry has yet to say exactly when the handy new software will be available, so you’ll just have to start watching on September 1.