A few months ago, we broke news of a Wi-Fi-enabled Pearl successor that would be available sometime around a September time frame. To expand on that news a bit, it appears that Research In Motion will also possibly debut an 8110 model. It can be easily found that RIM owns both the blackberry8110.com and blackberry8120.com domains, in addition to the blackberry8130.com (although ownership is hidden by CSC/Register.com, RIM’s registrar of choice).
Anyhow, much of the same means that were used to gather information concerning the move to OS 4.3.0 as a potential next step, this news was also gathered through those means, courtesy of RIM’s own publicly-accessible website (hey, can’t beat free public information from the source, eh?). The obvious question now would be: What exactly will the 8110 model offer that’s not available in the current Pearl and won’t be found in the 8120 model? Well, one thing is for sure, it won’t have Wi-Fi. I can only guess it will include the 2.0 megapixel camera upgrade, as well as everything else within the 8120 model.
The 8130 model, which should see the light of day someday or another, will be the long-rumored CDMA BlackBerry Pearl. Expect the bells and whistles, and likely RIM’s second entry into the ‘World Edition’ arena.
To take a stab a bit further, I’ll predict the 8120 debuting on T-Mobile, taking advantage of their UMA technology and HotSpot@Home service offering, while the rest of the world, including Cingular, will get their paws on the 8110 Wi-Fi-less model. And to further this, both devices will debut the birth of OS 4.3.0, right in time to take advantage of some new features that will debut with BES 4.1.4, which is set for later this month, and T-Mobile’s eventual wide launch of the long-awaited UMA services..
Anyone remember the days of RIM’s device release model of “less is more” (both release schedule and total devices) and the longing for a more Nokia or Motorola-like company with a multitude of devices that do the same thing under the hood but look slightly different to the naked eye? Welcome to the new RIM, a consumer-friendly company that continues to confuse the crap out of their customers.