Cingular ups smartphone ante with BlackJack

Cingular aims to trump the Q and Pearl with BlackJack.

The popular U.S. wireless provider announced that it will sell a 3G Samsung-made phone called the BlackJack, which is a personal-business hybrid that offers email and a computer-like keyboard as well as a camera and a music and video player. (That multimedia content has to come from Cingular Music and Cingular Video, of course.)

BlackJack will run on Windows Mobile 5.0 and can run on both HSDPA and EDGE networks. Motorola’s Q (sold by Verizon) and Research In Motion’s Pearl are already established in this business-personal sector, but Cingular has an established name across the market as a whole.