Research In Motion, the company behind Blackberry, is expanding its product line and releasing 4 completely different phones for different types of users. All 4 will be released by the end of the year, and all of them sound pretty sweet in their own right. Here’s a brief rundown…
The first, coming within the next couple weeks, is the Blackberry Bold, or 9000. Rumors of a release date have the Bold coming out on July 25th, but seeing as that refers to tomorrow, I couldn’t really say for sure. Other sources point to the following week on the 29th, which seems more reasonable. Anyway, the Bold is a continuation of the classic Blackberry Curve, highlighted with more power, a better, brighter, quality screen, GPS, and a new OS. It still has the full QWERTY keyboard and all the tested software that Blackberry provides, and is targeted toward the business oriented person.
The next, which is also in the upper price range, is the Blackberry Thunder, or 9500, which is expected to come out sometime in November or December. As I’m sure you know, the Thuder is defined by its touchscreen interface, and has been coined by many to be the ‘iPhone killer’. In actuality, this device was built more to say “we can do it too” than to try and dominate the iPhone– Blackberry will still rely mostly on its Pearl, Curve, and Bold sales over those of the Thunder. At any rate, the screen is supposed to have better quality than the iPhone’s, but for right now, most of the talk is just rumor.
The third on our list is the newly unveiled KickStart, which is the first flip phone that Blackberry has ever put into production. It will be more of a mid range phone in terms of pricing, and is tentatively scheduled to release in September. Again, most of the Blackberry features will be included, and the keyboard will be the same as that already featured on the Blackberry Pearl.
The final Blackberry product to come is the basic, inexpensive Javelin, which will release around the same time as the Thunder in November or December. It is, to be short, a simplified version of the Blackberry Curve that will have all the same capability, with slower speeds and not quite as amazing quality parts. Again, most of the talk about the Javelin is still just rumor, but it is definite that the phone will release sometime in the next months.
And that concludes the Blackberry summary…
Technorati Tags: blackberry, blackberry thunder, blackberry bold, blackberry kickstart, blackberry javelin, blackberry pearl, blackberry curve, RIM
July 24th, 2008
It looks like the new Blackberry Thunder 9500, which is supposed to be RIM’s iPhone 3G killer, is the furthest thing from it at this point. Boy Genius was able to get amazing inside information once again, quoting one of his “RIM ninjas” as saying “Thunder is in no way, shape, or form market ready. If bold was any indication, Thunder won’t be ready for at least another 4-5 months.” The source even went on to say “most of the people who have handled it think it’s a joke.”
Apparently, there are several serious problems with the phone at this point. The keyboard is very difficult to type on, the screen shows ripples whenever it is touched, and the accelerometer within the phone is overly sensitive, making the phone go completely out of whack whenever it is moved. There are also half second delays that consistently occur while navigating through the operating system. Let’s hope these bugs can be worked out… I’d really like to see the Thunder emerge and actually challenge the iPhone! It’d be a shame if it fell into the other group of minor touchscreen wanabees. For more from Boy Genius click here.
Technorati Tags: blackberry thunder, blackberry 9500, iphone 3g, boy genius, boy genius report, RIM
July 9th, 2008
A lot people have been coming to our blog looking for info on the Blackberry Thunder. With the new iPhone 3G being just around the corner, I have been wanting to do a iphone 3G vs. Blackberry Thunder comparison for a while. Unfortunately, the data (especially for the Blackberry Thunder) is rather limited. This is what we know so far.
- The Blackberry Thunder is running on Verizon in the US. The iPhone 3G is for AT&T of course.
- Both have a full touch screen.
- Both support mp3s.
- Hmm… both of them are black?
See, that’s how little info we have on the Blackberry Thunder. But we do have a possible picture of the Blackberry Thunder / Verizon Thunder / Vodafone Thunder / Blackberry 9500 / or Blackberry Storm (the old nickname before Blackberry said that it’s not true). Again, all the pictures of the Thunder were made by BoyGeniusReport. Click here to read all the background info here:
Now take a look at the iPhone 3G. Click on the image to see the specs on Apple:
So what’s the conclusion? I have no idea. I think it’s too early to tell what the Thunder has so far. Maybe we can get a better comparision once Blackberry releases more data on the phone.
Technorati Tags: iphone, iphone 3g, cell phone, blackberry, blackberry thunder, pictures, images, apple iphone, blackberry 9500, verizon
June 26th, 2008
As we so heavily discussed several weeks ago, Blackberry’s next big product is going to be the Blackberry 9500, also known as the Blackberry Thunder or Verizon Thunder. Blackberry already announced that the hype is real, setting the Blackberry Thunder up to be the big iPhone competitor.
As far as I know, they haven’t released any demos or screen shots of the product… until now. The genius Boy Genius (no pun intended), also amongst the first to break the Blackberry Thunder news a couple weeks ago, somehow got his hands on a picture of what the phone looks like. Of course, not everything shown online is real, but this sure looks like it could potentially be what the Blackberry 9500 would look like.
So without further ado, here’s the Verizon Thunder (Sorry for keep on switching names on you guys. Since no official name is really set yet, I am not quite sure what to call it either):
Again, the credit goes out to Boy Genius. Between the 3G iPhone and this phone, I am not sure which one I should pick now…
Technorati Tags: verizon, verizon thunder, blackberry thunder, blackberry 9500, boygeniusreport, picture, pics
June 9th, 2008
Here we go again. Blackberry Thunder news, but this time it’s for real. Official. No more rumors!
Actually RIM basically confirmed all the rumors that we have been posting for the last couple weeks regarding the new touchscreen Blackberry, known as the Blackberry 9500 or Blackberry Thunder. It is officially going to launch on Verizon and Vodafone (so I guess you can also call it Verizon Thunder or Vodafone Thunder too).
Basically the rumors are true. In terms of how it looks though, that’s still up in the air as far as I know. But again like I revealed a couple weeks ago, Boy Genius Report made a mock design:
Get ready, iPhone. Your competitor is in sight! And our source for this official annoucement? Thank you PC Magazine!
Technorati Tags: blackberry, blackberry thunder, thunder blackberry, verizon, vodafone, verizon thunder, cell phone, smart phone, mobile, mobile phone, iphone
May 29th, 2008
It’s official. Just like everything else, once it gets on The Wall Street Journal, it gotta be real! Here’s a part of the article from The Wall Street Journal:
Research In Motion Ltd. plans to introduce a touch-screen version of its BlackBerry device, according to people familiar with the matter, answering the challenge posed by the popularity of Apple Inc.’s iPhone. Read the article on The Wall Street Journal.
The bottom line? Just wait everyone, the Blackberry 9500, aka the Blackberry 9500, aka Verizon Thunder (I guess it could be Vodafone Thunder too, since they are getting that in Europe) is on its way! Just to recap, the Blackberry Thunder is supposed to have a touchscreen, just like the iPhone. For more info on the phone as well as the potential picture, you can read our old entries.
Technorati Tags: verizon, blackberry, RIM, research in montion, iphone, blackberry thunder, blackberry touchscreen, blackberry 9500, wall street, verizon thunder, cell phone, news, phones
May 16th, 2008
It seems like I am not the only one that buying into the “Blackberry Thunder, Verizon Thunder, Blackberry 9500, or whatever else you want to call it” hype. I originally didn’t want to put this picture up because it’s nothing but some great photoshop skills, but it seems like every other blog has this picture now so here it is. The potential Blackberry Thunder:
We gotta give credit where credit is due. This is made by Boy Genius Report and as far as I know, he hasn’t told us where he got that kind of information. And before I forget, a lot of people are writing about this too, as seen here and here.
I am not 100% sure if this rumor is true or not, but it does kind of make sense. If I was Blackberry, I would want to follow the iPhone lead and come up with a touchscreen phone too. I might seriously consider switching to Verizon if this becomes reality.
Technorati Tags: blackberry, blackberry 9500, new blackberry, blackberry thunder, blog, rumors, picture, pic, iphone
May 15th, 2008
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