The Research In Motion (RIM) Blackberry has always had the perception of being an enterprise product, something that corporate employees need to keep in touch with business clients and coworkers while on the go. RIM is out to change this image and attract more of the consumer market to their Blackberry products.

With this goal, the phone makers Chief Executive Officer Mike Lazaridis announced at the Mobile World Congress that a new WebKit browser will be available later this year. The new internet browser is said to offer faster file downloads as well as display websites better as it will support HTML5, DOM L3, CSS3, AJAX and Javascript. Additionally, it will also support both JIL and Blackberry widgets.

When pressed further, Lazaridis declined to offer specifics about a release date, only that consumers can download the WebKit later this year. Right now RIM faces stiff competition from Android handsets and the Apple iPhone and this move is seen as an attempt to make their Blackberry more appealing to non business users.

Along the same lines, RIM did release the Blackberry Storm 2 last October, again with the intent of trying to appeal to this target market. The Storm 2 came with a larger display screen and was said to be in response to the iPhone and the Motorola Droid.

Via: Business Week