After a decade of producing mobile phone and email devices that provide business people and consumers with a scaled-down version of the traditional 'qwerty' keyboard, RIM – maker of the BlackBerry – has unveiled its first phone with a traditional mobile phone keypad.

The new BlackBerry Pearl 3G, which will be available in the UK by the early summer, is the same size as its successful predecessor but has a traditional alphanumeric keypad rather than its predecessor's slimmed down qwerty pad – which had two letters per key.

The device also sports a 3.2 megapixel camera – the original Pearl had a mere 1.3 megapixels – a processor that is twice as fast as the earlier model, supports the latest version of Wi-Fi, and has an optical trackpad instead of the original's trackball. In essence the new Pearl is a slimmed down version of the Bold 9700.

The BlackBerry Pearl, launched three years ago, helped the Canadian technology company break into the consumer market, with network operators offering it to pre-pay as well as contract customers. Alongside last year's BlackBerry Curve 8520, its replacement, the Pearl 3G, is deigned to further widen the appeal of BlackBerry devices to the consumer market.

It also marks the first time that RIM has developed difference devices for different markets. In the US the Pearl 3G will have the same 20-key condensed qwerty keypad as the original Pearl, but in Europe it will have a traditional 14-key mobile phone keypad.

"The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is unlike any other smartphone in the world and we expect a broad range of new and existing customers will be drawn to its powerful features and compact design," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion.

"Considering the fast growing consumer interest in smartphones and the fact that more than three-quarters of the people in the global mobile phone market are still buying handsets with a traditional alphanumeric keypad, we think the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G addresses a substantial market opportunity. It allows consumers to upgrade their traditional mobile phone to a full-featured, easy-to-use and fashionable 3G BlackBerry smartphone that supports BlackBerry Messenger and many other apps while maintaining a handset design and layout that is familiar and comfortable."