Verizon has quietly removed the BlackBerry Bold, its most popular RIM device, from online and offline stores, suggesting it will soon launch the new and improved BlackBerry Bold 9900/9300.
The BlackBerry Bold 9900/9300, announced in May for Verizon and Sprint, have high-resolution touch screens and a faster 1.2-GHz processors. There's also the new BlackBerry 7 operating system, the latest and final version of the current platform before RIM reportedly launches devices with QNX in early 2012.
PCMag's mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, did a hands on with the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9300 back in May and said it was only a "very subtle upgrade" to existing BlackBerry 6 Bolds. Click on the slideshow below for more photos.
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A Verizon retail manager in New York City said no release date had been announced, but the fact that it was taken off shelves implied it would launch within two weeks.
"If you really want a BlackBerry you should wait for the 9900," he said.
In an unrelated interview on Wednesday, Sprint's business chief, Paget Alves, told PCMag that new BlackBerry devices were coming in "30 to 45 days."
An online Verizon store search for the last version of the Bold, the 9650, gave us an "unavailable" status. A Verizon spokesperson declined to comment.
RIM debuted the 9900/9300 in Canada earlier this month ($170 on Virgin Mobile, with contract) but in the U.S. it has left release dates and pricing details to the cell phone carriers.
Earlier this month, RIM also announced three more BlackBerry 7 smartphones, the BlackBerry Torch 9810, 9850, and 9860 for AT&T, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular (see slideshow below). RIM analyst Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital predicted all five BlackBerry 7 phones will be released in August.
For more on the future of BlackBerry, see BlackBerry 7: Dead on Arrival? and How RIM Turned Two New BlackBerrys Into Five, as well as "8 Things the Next BlackBerry Needs to Triumph."
PCMag's networking analyst Samara Lynn, meanwhile, argued that BlackBerry Is Still Tops for IT.
Source:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390904,00.asp?kc=PCRSS05039TX1K0000762
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