Research in Motion (RIM) has unveiled a new version of its popular BlackBerry Curve in a bid to increase its market share among young consumers.

The ‘affordable’ BlackBerry Curve has already established itself as a firm favourite among the UK’s under 25s, with recent stats showing that it’s the most popular smartphone among teenagers. A recent Ofcom survey revealed that 37% of teenagers own a BlackBerry, far more than the number of those who use the costlier iPhone.

Once the preferred smartphone among business users, the BlackBerry has found favour among the nation’s young consumers because of its relatively low cost. The now-infamous BlackBerry Messenger Service, which allows users to communicate with groups of fellow users for free, rather than using paid-for calls and SMS messaging, is also the device’s major selling point. 

Mobile marketers and high street retailers will be particularly interested in the marketing possibilities arising from some of the new handset’s enhanced features, such as Near Field Communications (NFC), which allows phones to be scanned at tills to pay for small items like snacks and newspapers. Curve’s Facebook and Twitter apps have also been updated, with new features such as Facebook Chat.

The recent Ofcom study in smartphone usage revealed that more teenagers than adults use their handsets for social networking, but more adults use their devices for emailing and surfing the web. 

By Neil Tuner