Our good friend Jibi published a couple of posts at BGR yesterday... one with details on the upcoming BlackBerry 9000 device and another with some further clarifications just to make sure people had their details straight.
Let's start with the clarifications, before we get to to the device details. Jibi says,
- "The new BlackBerry 9000 is an actual device not a reference to the entire post-8000 series successor;
- The new BlackBerry 9000 device is not one of the previously mentioned 9100, 9300 or 9900 device families, all of which are expected to feature a 3G radio in the form of UMTS and HSDPA (GSM evolution);
- The release of the BlackBerry 9000 should not be expected to delay any release dates for the BlackBerry 9×00, which we anticipate to first be the BlackBerry 9900 corporate device with an early to mid-May 2008 pre-availability announcement."
Now let's look at some of the details Jibi says the 9000 device (NOT series) will have:
- 9000 device will features a 480 by 320 screen
- Physical dimensions are not yet known at this time
- 9000 device will operate on a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radio and will feature 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi capabilities
- 9000 device will be a full-qwerty device, likely with a new layout
- May or May not be touchscreen (my guess is the 9000 device will feature an updated physical keyboard, but maybe another device in the upcoming 9xxx series will feature a touchscreen)
- 9000 device will have the same basic BlackBerry OS, but it will launch with version 4.3.2
- 9000 device could launch as early as January and as late as April (I'm thinking we could see an announcement at CES)
So there you have it! The details are becoming more clear. Jibi is a trusted source for this kind of info, so I'm sure these details 9000 device details will hold true as the "official" word is eventually released. I sure hope he's right! While I'm looking forward to the giant leap rumors are promising for the latter 9xxx series devices, I'll take this 9000 device (which as Jibi puts it can be thought of as an elder sibling to the 8320 Curve) in a heartbeat!
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