The Touchscreen BlackBerry Thunder to Compete with Apple’s iPhone
Research In Motion (RIM) is going to release a touchscreen variant of their BlackBerry smart phone, known as the BlackBerry Thunder (or BlackBerry 9500), to compete with Apple’s iPhone.
The release is scheduled for the third quarter of this year, which is the same time that the 2nd Generation iPhone is speculated to be released.
The BlackBerry Thunder will support CDMA and EV-DO for the US along with 4G data technology known as LTE. Outside the U.S. it will support GSM, EDGE, EVDO and HSDPA.
It is supposed to be exclusive to Verizon Wireless here in the U.S. similar to how Apple’s iPhone is exclusive to AT&T. That is the biggest drawback. There is already speculation about the higher costs involved with this upcoming phone due to the Verizon exclusivity.
According to Gary Krakow:
There are no rumors yet as to what astronomical monthly fees Verizon Wireless might decide to charge for the new phone along with domestic voice, domestic high-speed data, international voice and data as well as upcoming 4G data network access.
For now, RIM hasn’t even released a confirmed photo of the device. The picture you see above is a concept image from BoyGeniusReport.
Stay tuned as I am sure their will be a lot more information available about this touchscreen BlackBerry in the near future.
[ Via TheStreet ]
