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Datamation.com today announced its Product of the Year Awards winners, voted on by the Web site's readership of corporate computing professionals.

In the Handheld Device category, Research in Motion's Blackberry 7100 ran away with the competition. The smartphone overwhelmed the other finalists, receiving an impressive 85 percent of total votes. The remaining 15 percent was divided among palmOne's Treo 650 and Tungsten T5, Hewlett-Packard iPAQ h6315 and ASUS Computer's MyPal A730W.

Industry analysts say Datamation readers most likely threw their support behind the BlackBerry 7100 because of its superior e-mail and voice capabilities. The PDA handily integrates phone, wireless e-mail and data abilities all in a small set.

Jeremy Anticouni, chief technology officer at Make It Work, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company which provides onsite computer services to home users and businesses, says his company uses the BlackBerry 7100 as an integral tool for their daily business.

''I am constantly using it,'' says Anticouni. ''It enables me to be out of the office but to still be fully functional.''

Anticouni says he jumped at switching from his original BlackBerry to the 7100 model as soon as the new device hit the market. He also says he likes the size of this handheld because it is more like a traditional mobile phone, and adds that the screen has unmatched clarity.

''The form factor of the 7100 is why I switched over,'' says Anticouni. ''You have full BlackBerry functionality in a phone format.''

Anticouni says Make It Work technicians use the device not only as a phone but also to access their e-mail, allowing the technicians to set up customer appointments. Administrators can then better track the appointment and collect payments from customers.

Mark Guibert, vice president of corporate marketing at RIM, says when designing the 7100, designers and engineers were keenly aware that a large segment of the population is not open to using a PDA unless it's the shape, size and weight of a traditional mobile phone.

''Users like the BlackBerry because it looks more and feels more like a phone,'' says Brownlee Thomas, principal analyst at Global Telecom Services with Forrester Research, Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based technology research company.

The device's ''push'' technology also helped to propel it into first place, analysts say. The technology allows users to access e-mail on command, without using a dial-up modem or plugging into a computer.

''With the BlackBerry 7100, users have e-mail information at the tips of their fingers wherever they are. It combines voice capabilities with data capabilities,'' says David Linsalata, a research analyst at IDC, an industry research firm based in Framingham, Mass.

RIM designers realized that people use wireless e-mail intermittently throughout the day, Guibert says. ''They are using e-mail at down times during the day -- it could be only 10 seconds,'' he explains. ''They must be able to do it smoothly and quickly.''

Guibert says the BlackBerry 7100 model is successful because of RIM's attention to its ease-of-use. ''In an era when a lot of people opt for cramming as much as possible into a product, they often lose sight of usability,'' he notes.

Guibert says the BlackBerry 7100 has a ''well-oiled end-to-end system in place,'' referring to the handheld's winning combination of push based e-mail, a bright, easy-to-read screen, extended battery life, and Blue Tooth technology, along with its small, light size and shape.

Guibert adds, ''Others have pieces of the solution but they are not packaged to make it easy to use and get on with the business of life.''

More on BlackBerry 7100
RIM and T-Mobile introduced the first BlackBerry 7100 model, the 7100t, in the United States last fall. Now there is the almost identical 7100r for Rogers Wireless network in Canada; the 7100v, with slightly different externals, for Vodafone networks in Europe and the Asia-Pacific; the 7100x for U.K. carrier O2; and the 7100g in Hong Kong, which will purportedly be the edition offered by Cingular Wireless in the U.S.

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With these smartphones, RIM replaced the BlackBerry thumb-keyboard with one that uniquely merges a keypad and a keyboard. For text entry, each key supports two letters, while predictive text software called SureType helps you accurately input text—so when you press a key the 7100 knows which of the two supported letters you mean to use.

The software's word database encompasses approximately 35,000 words plus the user's address book. As with your word processor's spell-checker, you can add more words to it as well.

SureType support various languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese and Swedish. So perhaps O2's parent company, mmo2 plc, may bring the device to other O2 branded carriers in Europe.

Since the 7100 mobile handsets are quad-band GSM/GPRS, you can use the smartphones when traveling anywhere in the United States, Europe, and Asia, as well as many other parts of the world.

Additional features include Bluetooth for use with wireless headsets and other peripherals, a bright color screen, and 32MB of RAM. Unfortunately, there is no way to add more memory because the devices do not integrate a memory card slot like many other smartphones.

Of course, the devices can connect to RIM's renowned enterprise software, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, for access to corporate e-mail and data.

Click here to see the rest of Datamation.com's Product of the Year Awards winners.

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