Even though Research in Motion co-CEO and president Mike Lazaridis thinks that the iPhone’s touch screen sucks, RIM may be working on a new BlackBerry that will be just as hard to type on as it is on the iPhone.
The New York Times is reporting that two independent software developers writing software for next-gen BlackBerry devices say that a touch screen BlackBerry is in the works and that RIM engineers privately refer to it as the “Apple Killer”.
It seems to me that their have been so many “BlackBerry Killers” that didn’t hunt, RIM of all companies would be leery about referring to their own device as a killer… Especially an “Apple Killer” when we know the iPhone is a solid device.
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It seems like lately everyone is talking about the touch-screen bearing BlackBerry 9000 series devices that are supposed to be coming out in the first half of next year. Don’t get me wrong, the BlackBerry 9000 will undoubtedly be a popular device, however, an iPhone killer it won’t be. (It doesn’t really need to be, however that is for another post…)
Touch screens aren’t anything new. Granted the iPhone’s interface is revolutionary and is actually pretty usable, however, the tactile feel of buttons when pounding out emails is far superior. Simply ignore anyone who tries to convince you otherwise.
RIM is absolutely pushing into the consumer market and success here is critical to the long term success of the company going forward, however, RIM doesn’t have the luxury of putting out a device so targeted to consumers that less than one tenth of one percent of the people who buy it do so primarily for business reasons.
Although the trend is changing, the majority of BlackBerry users out there use their devices because they really need them, in addition to them being cool phones. How many iPhone users truly need an iPhone to support their livelihood? A third of BlackBerry users think that SureType is evil. No keyboard at all will be perceived as “Michael Vick dog fighting” evil for many.
A BlackBerry with a touch screen will be pretty cool. I will surely get one. It will, however, undoubtedly be my other device. Kind of like my iPhone is now.
The Boy Genius has made a name for himself by getting the inside scoop on up and coming BlackBerry devices before anyone else. It looks like there won’t be any let down when it comes to the rumored BlackBerry 9000 that will be the first BlackBerry device to sport a touch-screen.
According to BGR, the BlackBerry 9000 series devices will have:
- 320×480 screen
- 1 gig of memory
- 624MHz Intel XScale PXA270 processor
- GPS and Wi-Fi
- 3G Support (multi-band HSDPA)
- 2.0 (possibly 3.2) megapixel digital camera
BG is expecting the BlackBerry 9000 series devices to start shipping in the Q1 to Q2 time frame so it will be fun to track all the developments over the next few months.
