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BlackBerry 9670 headed to US Cellular 'later this year'?

By Kevin Michaluk on 24 Jun 2010 07:16 pm
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It's not often that we have news from US Cellular on back-to-back days, but this one we just couldn't pass up. In what appeared to just be a press release announcing some Android devices, a paragraph about the Bold 9650 release caught my eye.

The carrier will release the BlackBerry Bold in early August and later this year it will offer a BlackBerry flip smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard. U.S. Cellular is also releasing new touch screen devices like the LG Banter Touch featuring a 3-inch touch display and side-sliding QWERTY keyboard. 

If you check out the second part of the sentence, the reference to the "BlackBerry flip smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard" can only be referring to our good friend the BlackBerry 9670 (unless there is yet another full-QWERTY flip in the works that we have yet to hear of). What does this mean? Well most likely that Verizon will land the little guy first and US Cellular will (as always) follow in their footsteps a few months behind. So if you do the math, the 9670 should be released somewhere in the next few months... hopefully sooner than later. Check out the full release below.

Press Release

U.S. Cellular Answers the Call for Cutting-Edge Phones

New phones launching through end of 2010 will include four Android devices

CHICAGO, June 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- U.S. Cellular's customers have come to expect a reliable network, customer service and innovative programs like Overage Protection and Battery Swap, and now the wireless carrier is unveiling a wave of cutting-edge devices that will join its smartphone lineup this year.

U.S. Cellular is launching four phones in 2010 that run on the Android operating system, beginning with the release of the Samsung Acclaim on July 9 and the HTC Desire, with a vibrant 3.7-inch touch screen, 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 5 megapixel camera and Wi-Fi, in early August. Another highly-anticipated Samsung device and an LG device with a large touch screen and slide-out, ergonomically-designed QWERTY keyboard, will be in stores in October.

"We're excited about everything these Android-powered devices will bring to our customers," said Edward Perez, vice president of marketing and sales operations for U.S. Cellular. "They give customers quick and easy access to thousands of applications, so each device can be completely unique and mirror their personal tastes and lifestyles. The phones will be a great complement to the popular BlackBerry® and Windows Mobile® devices that already anchor our smartphone line."

The Acclaim is exclusive to U.S. Cellular customers. It has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard with a 3.2-inch touch screen, 3 megapixel camera and Wi-Fi.

All of U.S. Cellular's phones running on Android give customers access to popular Google applications and will be pre-loaded with U.S. Cellular applications such as My Contacts Backup, City ID, Tone Room Deluxe and Your Navigator Deluxe. Customers can tap into the Android Market, a rapidly-growing catalog of more than 70,000 applications, most of which are free, to transform their phone into a lifestyle device.

The carrier will release the BlackBerry Bold in early August and later this year it will offer a BlackBerry flip smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard. U.S. Cellular is also releasing new touch screen devices like the LG Banter Touch featuring a 3-inch touch display and side-sliding QWERTY keyboard.

Customers who use their phones primarily for talking and texting also have a few new options coming their way: a dark purple QWERTY Motorola device with a unique square shape and a side-sliding QWERTY device from Samsung with a 2 megapixel camera designed for quick and easy texting.

"We've always believed that our customers deserve a wide selection of phones that fit their individual needs," said Perez. "We hope our customers are as excited as we are about what we have coming up between now and the end of the year."

Image Source: BGR

Topics: US Cellular BlackBerry 9670 News & Rumors Devices

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29 comments

rdy78

my sister was gonna get the bold but she says she's gonna wait for the clamshell...

Kevin Michaluk

see. there is a market for clamshells with a full qwerty! awesome.

wdfly

it's the clapper! this is an abortion that lived.

shacknews

I am ashamed of this phone. If I see anyone with it, I'll feel sooo bad for that poor soul with buyers remorse.

mpatchez

I personally would not buy the flip device but there will be a market. I'm guessing a small market though, lol

mpatchez

I personally would not buy the flip device but there will be a market. I'm guessing a small market though, lol

mrlee7

i think RIM intends this to appeal more to chicks.

Its like when ferrari came out with the california (the current gen). They wanted a "fem" ferrari for the rich female crowds.

I think this is a "fem" blackberry, and i really do think RIM intends for the majority of the flip's sales to from chicks.

IMO..

sweetlittlehugs

I don't know why you would think that. I would never buy such a big gangly phone and I am a "chick". I think the market for this will be much smaller than an entire gender.

mrlee7

I'll admit I don't have any real substantial backing to support my opinion that RIM intended this device to appeal more toward a female market.

It's just based on my current observations females tend to be more receiving of this new flip.

Maybe it feels and looks an accessory? I don't know.

But this is just speculation on my part on whom RIM wants to market this too, and whom would be more accepting of it.

dystopia

I if I wanted a "fem" phone from RIM I'd go with a pearl its much more classy and less clunky. This clam is such a fail. :(

HTC_Droid_EvO

Wow this thing should be given away on Cricket Wireless

Yikes...

abolds4397

While I am a BlackBarry fan, I can't EVER see me owning the 9670. To me it is extremely U-G-L-Y at best! I guess that there is a movement for the clamshell (I am unaware of the size of the movement) but it will NEVER make it into a pocket or phone holster of mine. I am interested in the upgrade on the 9700 and I like the 9800 as I will upgrade my 9700 when something comes out that has more capabilities (and has the BB6 OS) with T-Mobile. If you like it, flaunt it when you buy it but I'll never try it!

Connor83

I hope this phone comes out very soon. Not that I want it at all, but... RIM seems to release (announce) devices two at a time (or close to) so once this one is there the 9800 slider will fallow.

Olivier B

I don't _know_ if there really is a market for clamshell with full keyboard.
What I _see_ is that Moto (Flipout) AND Nokia (7705) are both putting a phone of this kind (OK, they're sliders).

Fafou

US Cellular is an awful partner. They have no coverage on the East coast. What is RIM thinking? Since there is already a small market for this phone, why would they make it smaller by limiting the market to the midwest?

Wiredin

too much shiny... needs more black

LCW

US Cellular can have it. Just keep the flip away from T-Mo!

nevildev

would never buy this phone.

Jpatterson350

Bye bye RIM you just lost another customer to android!

Im out for good!

f_d

This thing is effing ugly..

The issue is all of that unused space around the keyboard, and the ugly use of chrome.. Even if they do nothing else, they *NEED TO GET RID OF THE CHROME AROUND THE KEYPAD*.. The 8220 Pearl Flip actually looks quite decent with the matte silver around the screen, but flat black plastic lower body- just do the same, but in a higher end plastic and better quality build, and that would help immensely with the look of the device.. If they really wanted to make it better though:

Instead of retrofitting a standard BlackBerry keyboard, they should step out of the mold and make use of all that extra space by putting in a full QWERTY alphanumeric keyboard with a couple of extra rows of keys for numbers without shifting, commonly used punctuation and symbols without the symbol key, put caps shift keys on either side of the space bar for ambidextrous capitalization, and maybe even a row of extra large programmable function keys or media control keys.. Fill up that empty space and give us some new functionality at the same time.. Yes, I know RIM is justifiably proud of their keyboard layout, but this is an all new device with a larger form factor and a keyboard change will not fundamentally change the "BlackBerry Experience"- indeed, it might make it a fair bit more pleasant..

3G.BoldBerry

Like that wakky perl flip? What ever happend to that phone. This is just a os 6 flip berry. I'm not feeling this. Rim needs something 90000 ish with horse power. Let's do this again. This time please get the design right. Keep the track pad and power up the cpu. Flips are for kids.

hbalagh

I have to admit this is truly the ugliest blackberry I have ever seen... as i quickly turn my head to look at my beautiful and sexy 9700

Angry_American

US Cell has native coverage in the carolina's as well as several other east and west coast areas. They are also the 5th largest carrier in the US, not the small potatoes you seem to think they are.

shaqulle23

this is one of the ugliest blackberrys