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Small Business Computing today announced the results of its annual Excellence in Technology Awards, revealing winners and runner-ups in 26 different categories. The awards, which recognize products released or upgraded between January 1 and October 31, 2006, are chosen by Small Business Computing readers, which are the Internet and IT professionals who provide technology solutions for small businesses.

The winner in the Mobile Device category this year is Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry Pearl with 39 percent of the vote, offered by T-Mobile and Cingular Wireless in the U.S. While the runner up, the Palm Treo 700wx with 25 percent of the vote, is available from Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and Alltel.

It is fitting that one, the BlackBerry Pearl, is only available from GSM carriers, while the other, the Treo 700wx, CDMA operators.

BlackBerry Pearl
The BlackBerry Pearl—intially available only in black, but just released in white as well—is RIM's first BlackBerry with a built-in camera for picture and video as well as music-playing capabilities and a memory expansion slot.

While built in the mold of RIM's 7100 series, which means it is more smartphone-like than 8700 series, it is nonetheless considerably smaller than that earlier model. At a compact 4.2 x 2.0 x 0.57 inches (107 x 50 x 14. millimeters) and a mere 3.1 ounces (89 grams), it is the sleekest-looking BlackBerry yet.

The device nixes the traditional BlackBerry QWERTY thumb-keyboard for a keypad/keyboard combo that merges numbers and text onto each button, while RIM's SureType technology helps users accurately input text. When they press a key, the BlackBerry Pearl - as with the 7100 series – is supposed to know which of the two supported letters they mean to use.

BlackBerry Pearl's 1.3 megapixel camera comes with built-in flash and 5x digital zoom. MMS enables you to send video and pictures as multimedia messages to others. And you can display images and video (MPEG-4 and H.263) on the BlackBerry's 240 x 260 pixel color screen, which isn't touch, just like all other RIM handhelds.

To navigate the smartphone you use a trackball - the Pearl in the handset- which, along with the display and keypad/keyboard, adjusts lighting to provide an optimized view in outdoor, indoor and dark environments.

In terms of audio, BlackBerry Pearl plays back MP3 and AAC music files. There's a stereo headset jack. And Bluetooth 2.0 support means you'll be able to wirelessly connect to wireless headsets and stereo headphones as well.

Speaker independent voice recognition for voice activated dialing is available through integrated technology from a company called Voice Signal.

The quad-band GSM/GPRS smartphone is also EDGE-enabled; a 2.5 G cellular technology supported by T-Mobile and most other GSM carriers. That means you'll be able to send those multimedia messages, browse the Web, access e-mail and other content services at average speeds of 135 kilobits per second.

As with all BlackBerrys, BlackBerry Pearl supports RIM's push e-mail and data access solutions. It also bundles the AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and ICQ instant messaging clients.

There’s 64 MB of memory.

For more on the BlackBerry Pearl, see our review.

Treo 700wx
The Treo 700wx is nearly identical to the Treo 700w, released early last year by Verizon, expect the former has twice as much RAM, 64 MB, as the latter. What this does is give the Treo 700wx 44 MB of user-available memory compared to the Teo 700w's mere 25 MB.

The Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone, which measures 4.4 x 2.3 x .9 inches (111 x 58 x 22.5 millimeters) and weighs 6.4 ounces (180 grams), runs on a 312 MHz Intel XScale processor, and has an SDIO-enabled Secure Digital slot for memory and peripheral expansion. There's a square 240 x 240 pixel resolution touch screen with 65,536 colors, and a 1.3 megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom.

Like other Treos, its QWERTY thumb-keyboard is backlit and it has a 5-way navigator and speakerphone.

The Treo 700wx also supports Bluetooth dial-up networking (along with USB) to allow users to leverage the Treo as a wireless modem for a laptop through a 400-700 kbps EV-DO network out-of-the box. The same connection that deliver speedy access to e-mail, the Web, video, audio, handset TV and other content services.

It integrates Microsoft-based push e-mail through the software giant's Windows Mobile Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP), which includes Direct Push Technology for messages, calendar, contacts, and tasks; native S/MIME support, certificate-based authentication to all Exchange data; and remote and local device wipe.

There's also support for Good Mobile Messaging and Good Mobile Defense for security and fleet management purposes.

For more on the Treo 700wx, see our review.