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The triumph of the BlackBerry Pearl – both in the marketplace and in Datamation's Product of the Year awards, where it won Best Handheld Device – shows that BlackBerry users were eager to add a little style to their lives. The cell phone market is zooming ahead with sleek designs, and no one with a business phone wants to look like they carry it just because it's a business phone.

Datamation's winner in the wireless software category will come as a surprise to very few who work in enterprise tech: Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

BlackBerry Pearl
The Pearl found an enthusiastic audience, but it also did an awful lot right – both in terms of style and features. It was named for its pearl-like center trackball, which offers a new way to mouse around on screen and allows for easy, one-handed operation. The new controls work so well that users didn't miss the trackwheel and Escape button typically found on a BlackBerry's right side, or mind the Pearl's SureType keyboard, which puts two letters on each key. The Pearl debuted with T-Mobile, but is now offered by Cingular, as well.

While the Pearl can pass itself off as another elegant fashion phone, under the hood it’s a BlackBerry and it's ready for business. It can receive all the push content that a BlackBerry user needs, and it works flawlessly with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

When you've got down-time, the Pearl has you covered with three things never before found in a BlackBerry: a camera (1.3 megapixel), a media player, and a card slot (microSD) for storing songs or videos (or even work files).

Click here for more on why Pearl won.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server
The product first hit the market in 1999 as a desktop redirector, where it routed encrypted e-mails from the desktop to mobile devices. Customer requests drove innovation, and soon the company introduced a product that worked with laptops and a robust server version.

According to Alan T. Panezic, a vice president at RIM, consumer requests have always played a major role in the server's development. Once customers had e-mail pushed to them, they also wanted data pushed from other apps, like calendars and to-do lists.

In version 3.5, RIM added the Mobile Data System, a component that lets the server access Internet and intranet data, as well as enterprise applications. That significantly increased the kinds of data the server could send, as well as the range of products that would work with it.

The MDS interfaces using open standards, including XML data and HTTP transport, meaning that it can easily work with any device that has a Web interface. Plus, it handles encryption and security automatically, no matter the source. Along with the MDS, RIM offered a few sample applications to give people an idea how to use it, including an emergency contact list and a Java database application.

Click here for more on why BlackBerry Enterprise Server won.