BlackBerry 9000 – Myth or Reality?

The BlackBerry 9000 series, fast becoming a ‘white unicorn’ in BlackBerry circles, has finally received some substantiated information. Well, it appears that we may first be underwhelmed prior to being overwhelmed with our pipe dreams of the "Perfect BlackBerry".

The BlackBerry 9000 device (not series) has been confirmed with screen size of 480 x 320, although the physical dimensions are unknown at this time. Think of this device as the elder sibling to the BlackBerry 8320. Like it’s small screen counterpart, it will operate with a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radio (850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, and 1900MHz) and will feature 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi capabilities. This will be a full QWERTY device, as well.

The BlackBerry 9000 will feature the same general OS platform, although it will launch with version 4.3.2. Coincidentally, OS 4.3.2 will potentially be in the future roadmaps for all 8000 series devices, sans the 8700 family (although that may change).

To recap, Research In Motion will soon launch the BlackBerry 9000 handheld, which will feature a larger screen, a new OS update, most likely a new full QWERTY keyboard layout (which may or may not be a touch screen keyboard), but without HSDPA or UMTS capabilities. This could launch as soon as January and as late as April, although we’ve heard whispers it might even be officially announced by RIM today during their quarterly earnings report. Stay tuned!