Despite being adopted by every corporate exec under the sun, I have always found Blackberry smartphones to be annoying at best, and frustrating at worst (hence the reason why I always avoided owning one).
However it looks like the boys and girls at RIM are about to unleash an impressive Blackberry to the masses, one that will appeal to touch screen addicts as well as those embracing physical keyboards.
It looks like RIM has done an excellent job in designing not only the hardware for the phone, but the mobile OS as well (which seems to be running OS 6.x).
While the phone is far from being an iPhone killer (perhaps a Palm Pre killer at best), it may help RIM stay relevant in the age of the smartphone, especially with Windows 7 Mobile making its debut in the fall.
Currently this phone will only be available to one carrier in the US (AT&T), although if you live abroad you should be able to use the Blackberry Slider (or Blackberry 9800) on the carrier of your choice.
Thus far there is no word on when this phone will make an official appearance, although thus far it looks like Blackberry has unveiled its first decent phone ever (and no, the Storm series does not count).
(via MobileCrunch, images and video courtesy of Salmondrin)
Originally posted on July 7, 2010 @ 3:43 pm