The new BlackBerry Boldly goes into battle with iPhone

It is set to be one of the most bitter battles the gadget industry has seen.

BlackBerry today unveiled a new version of its emailing mobile phone, declaring war on arch rivals Apple and Nokia.

The new phone, called the Bold, will go on sale in the UK this month, and will initially be available at Carphone Warehouse and T-Mobile.

The BlackBerry, nicknamed crackberry by users because of its addictive nature, has already proved hugely popular with business users.

Company bosses hope the new BlackBerry Bold will help it take on Apple's slick handset.

"This is really the next generation of phones, and we are confident we can take on the competition," Philip Lander of RIM, the company behind the BlackBerry, said today.

"We believe our users want a keyboard, and that they are going to be very happy with the Bold for business and personal use."

The company has already thrown a lavish launch party in London for the gadget, with guests including Jake Gyllenhaal and Rachel Stevens being entertained by The Feeling.

However, experts warned that both companies could be in for a long battle.

"Both these companies are really gunnning for the high end of the mobile phone market," said Tom Dunmore of gadget magazine Stuff. "Consumers already seem to fall into two camps, iPhone fans or BlackBerry fans.

"I think that the new BlackBerry will make that decision harder, but realistically the decision comes down to how much you want to email.

"I'm a big fan of the iPhone, but even I would not try and write emails of more than a few lines on it, whereas with a BlackBerry long emails are no problem."

Apple, meanwhile, has been dogged with problems since the launch of its iPhone 3G last month.

Huge queues formed outside stores after computer systems failed on its launch day, and users have complained of phone crashes and problems with Apple's online email service. Despite this, the company sold more than a million handsets on its first weekend.