For Research in Motion (RIM)'s BlackBerry diehards, who found the BlackBerry Bold 9000 a trifle too big, RIM has announced its newest high-speed Bold 9700 smartphone, which will be available from AT&T as well as T-Mobile in the coming weeks.

Compared to the Bold 9000, the slimmer BlackBerry Bold 9700 will feature an optical trackpad for navigation, rather than the familiar BlackBerry trackball; an improved 3.2-megapixel camera;
624-MHz processor; 256 MB of memory; a 3.5-mm headset jack; and an extraordinarily sharp and bright 360-by-480 display.

In addition, the new device, running the new BlackBerry OS 5.0 for delivering a better Web browser, will be RIM's first 3G smartphone supporting seamless calling over Wi-Fi networks.

About the Bold, which will sell at $199.99, with a two-year contract, RIM's CEO Mike Lazaridis told PCMag. com: "We're not discontinuing the current Bold. But just like we have different Curves, we have different Bolds. This is the Bold for those that wanted it just a little smaller, but still wanted the Bold look, feel, performance and materials."

However, with a number of other innovative, headline-making smartphones - like the Verizon Droid, the Motorola Cliq, and the HTC Pure - hitting the market, the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 has a rather bleak chance of catching the fancy of smartphone users other than the existing BlackBerry fans who are also customers of either AT&T or T-Mobile.