Rimm tries to maintain its strong hold on Business users with new gadget

Rimm along with other Smartphone makers like Palm have had to sit on the sidelines as Google led Android smartphones seem to have caught the imagination of gadget lovers. The recent media frenzy over Google’s much anticipated Nexus One phone probably has not helped much either.

The BlackBerry maker plans to change all that and retain it’s still strong following of business users with the launch of a $200 gadget called the BlackBerry Presenter that it is demonstrating at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.  When you plug the device into a big-screen TV or projector, you can wirelessly run a PowerPoint presentation straight from your BlackBerry itself. You don’t need to then lug your laptop around for meets and actually move around up to 30 feet while presenting. You will be able to navigate through presentations, view speaker notes, loop presentation slides and reference information on one slide while displaying another.

The move is a good strategy when you think about it. In spite of trying to woo more mainstream consumers with cool apps and more media appeal, Rimm has largely been unsuccessful in shaking the general public’s fascination with more “cool” brands like Apple and Google. So it makes total sense to focus on strengthening its strong track record with more serious users.