RIM announces three new BlackBerrys
by Volker Weber
[They are announcing five, but that is just a network problem]
The one pictured above is the new Bold 9900, and that's the one you want, if you do like a BlackBerry. If you don't, move along. Nothing happens here.
The other two will be released in the future. A new Torch and a new Storm Torch. They are not calling the Storm a Storm, since that name does not have a good heritage. I suggest you stay away from the Torches. One does not have a keyboard, the other one is a fat slider.
All three of them run BlackBerry 7, and I understand you need to buy a new device to get BlackBerry 7. Since I don't have any of those devices, I can't tell you if you want BlackBerry 7, and I also do not know if it should be called BlackBerry 6.1 since BlackBerry 6 is still quite new. And pretty good.
The Bold 9900 it is. That's the one I want. Faster, with touchscreen, thinner than any previous BlackBerry, with a full keyboard. Alas, I can't have one. It's only launching soon.
Comments
If the quality of the hardware of the Bold 9900 is like it was with the Bold 9000 I may want to have one. I like the concept of the new OS to separate private from company data, but I think that is a bit too late.
i made the mistake on getting the first torch , useless device , heavy slow.
Bold is still the best BB device since 7290 :) i can see the new bold being added to the device stack
I've always been a big BlackBerry fan. I made a mistake getting a Storm 2, I tried to convince myself for a few months that I liked it but breathed a huge sigh of relief when I went back to a Bold 9700 (at the time the best device RIM ever produced). I would be prepared to give the new all-touch-screen Torch a go based on the fact that RIM surely learned their lessons with the first two Storms and the first Torch (which I never owned but seemed okay from the limited play I had with it). However, I'm a Windows phone user now, so I'm unlikely to get another BlackBerry.
It would be a shame to see RIM lose more share in the smartphone market, they have a rich heritage and the business world owes them a debt of gratitude for what they contributed to the market (not that it counts for much in today's fast-paced throw-away world).
