Events in the smartphone industry are moving with an amazing speed. Yesterday, Google and HTC launched G1, the fist telephone powered by Google’s Android platform. Also yesterday, Motorola announced its plans to launch an Android phone of its own some when in 2009. Research In Motion did not miss the opportunity and made its move in the 3G battle as well. The company gave details about the long-awaited BlackBerry Bold and its release date.

RIM said the BlackBerry Bold will hit the market on November 4 - for real this time - and will cost $300, two-year contract included. Considering the fact that the iPhone 3G is available for purchase for $200 and the T-Mobile G1 costs $180, users will understand where Bold earns its name. The BlackBerry Bold will be available across the United States exclusively on AT&T.

So RIM isn’t too timid about its new handset’s price tag. But is it worth it?

Besides a quite cool design, the BlackBerry Bold features a leatherette back plate, a weaked-up QWERTY keyboard with new thin metal dividers between each key. It will be the first BlackBerry that supports HSDPA networks around the world. The half-VGA color display screen (480x320) is a visual playground for the phone’s 624MHz mobile processor, optimized Web browser, built-in full GPS, Wi-Fi, and a 2.0 mega pixel camera that features 5x digital zoom.

The BlackBerry Bold has 1GB of onboard memory and can support up to 16GBs of expanded memory via a microSD/SDHC slot. The list of features continues with a sophisticated multimedia player, Bluetooth 2.0, Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialling (VAD), 802.11a/b/g WiFi, and compatibility with more than 60 international 3G networks.

The RIM new release will also feature a 3.5mm headphone jack. Ouch G1!

Despite the fact that the BlackBerry Bold takes high-end smart phones to a new level, it’s not an iPhone competitor. It doesn’t have iPhone’s touch technology, screen size, and accelerometer. However, RIM will launch its iPhone 3G killer - the BlackBerry Storm – before the holydays.