Research In Motion (RIM), the BlackBerry-maker, unveiled on Wednesday its first ever flip smart phone, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220. The announcement was made at CTIA, in San Francisco.

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone is designed to appeal to people who already have flip phones but wish to start doing more with them than just make calls. U.S. mobile phone users are actually very fond of flips.

It appears that 70 percent of handsets in the country have this shape, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said in an interview. "There's never been a smartphone or a BlackBerry option for that."

First of all, it will be available from T-Mobile USA and will be followed by European carriers later this year. The Pearl 8220 will come in red or black, and looks nothing like a BlackBerry on the outside. It has a 128-by-160 external screen and a 2-megapixel camera at the top.

The 4.6 OS that runs on the phone makes it possible for users to edit and create Microsoft Office documents with Dataviz' DocumentsToGo software. With an upgraded BlackBerry server, it also supports HTML e-mail. BlackBerry Pearl 8220 measures about 3.9 by 1.9 by .7 inches, weighs 3.6 ounces, and features up to 16 GB of storage via the microSD slot.

The handset also works with the BlackBerry Media Sync application to let users sync their iTunes music. It also has the so very useful capacity to cancel background noise during a phone call.

The Pearl Flip's removable and rechargeable battery provides four hours of talk time and more than 14 days of standby time.