BlackBerry Internet Service Updates En Route, Including Super-Cheap Bare-Bones Service?

BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Internet Service 2.6 will be bringing some worthwhile updates mid-March, according to the latest rumours, including:

• Better Gmail Integration
  • Accessing Gmail through IMAP instead of current POP interface
  • Provides one-way (BB Gmail) sync of read / unread status, delete, & sent items
  • Eliminates duplicate message issue on sent items
  • This new integration works with Gmail, Googlemail domain, and any other Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Apps domains
• Support for new email economical service tier: “@ BlackBerry”
  • Access to @carrier.blackberry.net hosted email address only
  • Email is limited to 32kb
  • No attachments or HTML formatting in emails
• Ability to show and hide password on WAP site (Not sure why they care)
• Ability to change and edit your signature from the WAP site (limited to 200 characters)
• Better POP3 Mail notification
  • You will now be sent a message telling you to set your desktop email client to leave messages on the server or else BIS will not get them
• Better error messages (but not much better)

The new @ BlackBerry tier will be extremely pared down, but cost only around $5/month. You’ll be missing out on attachment viewing, downloading and sending, additional e-mail addresses (like GMail, or Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Live),  HTML rich text viewing and e-mail sizes are limited to 32 KB. All the other usual e-mail functions remain, in addition to BlackBerry Messenger and meeting requests. This could potentially be a great way to rope in cautious users and get them hooked on the BlackBerry experience without having to go with a full-blown plan right off the bat. Folks are keeping a closer eye on their wallets these days, and offering something in that price range could mean great things for carriers who are likely losing a lot of data-intensive customers.

[via BerryReview]