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BlackBerry9999 and 9650x are both new to our analytics this week...
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Gotta love BlackBerry Slider talk.... and there's so much left to be known about the device. The Boy Genius dropped a "whisper" over the weekend with a couple new BlackBerry slider tidbits gained from one of his "solid connects".... here's what he had to say:
According to them, the device actually failed in early diagnostic testing a whopping 4 out of 5 times (which is supposed to be extremely rare for RIM devices). The only other handset that failed, we're told, is the BlackBerry Pearl Flip. What's even more interesting, is that the BlackBerry slider our guy saw was Sprint branded. Want to go one step further? We've been told there is also a GSM/HSPA version and that the model numbers are BlackBerry 9900 and BlackBerry 9930. Lastly, it looks like the HSPA version of the device will support 850/1900MHz UMTS bands which would make it compatible with both AT&T and Rogers' 3G networks.
BGR also noted it's likely that Sprint is aiming to get exclusivity on the 9930 and his contact mentioned he hasn't seen the word "Bold" anywhere in relation to the sliding device.
Good stuff here and none of it really goes against anything we've speculated on yet. Looking back at our last BlackBerry Slider Rumormill Roundup, we put out some theories based on the best info we had at the time. Finding the UAProf document for the 9700a on BlackBerry's website proves there is a 6.0 device with a 360x480 resolution out there (in this case on AT&T we know for sure based on app world reports) and we had heard prior from some of our connects that at least some of the early sliders were branded 9700a on the operating system. We never thought the 9700a was the actual go-to-market device model # (so 9900/9930 are completely plausible), but at least 9700a is what some of the earlier models have had and it jives with the what the actual UAProf doc shows. Our "Bold theory" came about from the fact we know the slider is not a Storm and it seems these days RIM is trying to fill out their product families vs. create a new product family for every single device. The look of the slider is more Bold-like than anything else thanks to the keyboard - just swap out the plastic back for the faux leather one and etch Bold into it and you'd be done. But that was a theory - not backed by intel. So we'll have to see on that. But maybe RIM/carrier partners do want to introduce the slider as a totally new product family - I'd be cool with that.
Heading back to our Google Analytics for CrackBerry, which as you might guess attracts a lot of visits from people on BlackBerry Smartphones, including pre-release ones, it's interesting to note that just over the past week we've seen two new BlackBerry device models pop up, including the BlackBerry9999 and BlackBerry9650x. Maybe the 9999 is the test CDMA version of the slider (AT&T's being the 9700a) prior to us seeing the 9900/9930 in final form? Or 9700a is just older and has moved onto 9999 for now? And maybe the 9650x is the revamped Tour2 which is now a Bold. Who knows. But it's so crazy it might just be true. One thing is for sure... there is still a lot more we want to know about this BlackBerry Slider.
Source: Boy Genius Report
