BlackBerry Tour With Touchscreen Coming to Verizon

Pending further confirmation, we are filing this as a rumor for now, but reports are coming in that the rumored next-generation CDMA BlackBerry that will replace the 8800 series will feature a similar form factor with a touchscreen and front-facing candybar QWERTY keyboard. The CDMA BlackBerry Tour will be similar in its specs--touchscreen with physical keyboard--to the rumored BlackBerry Magnum, a GSM device that is rumored to be coming to AT&T. The Tour will utilize CDMA and EVDO for data while carrying a GSM radio for global roaming.

Curiously, early leaks of the BlackBerry Tour indicates that it will carry the model number 9630, but the Phone Arena leak states that it is a 9030 device. We aren't sure at this point whether this is a typo or if there will be another device in the CDMA lineup. At this point, the Tour is slated for Verizon Wireless in the US.

What's interesting with this news is that Research in Motion will continue to use its SurePress screen clicking technology to simulate an actual key press when using the touchscreen. The mechanism behind SurePress has received much criticism on the BlackBerry Storm. The device maker has issued statements before that the technology is here to stay, at least for the time being.

Devices with touchscreens and hardware keyboards are not new to the smartphone world, although this will be among the first BlackBerry devices to utilize this form factor and combination--the category has been dominated by Palm in the past with its Treo line (Windows Mobile Professional and Palm OS) and more recently the Samsung Epix, the Palm Treo Pro, and now the Palm Pre (webOS operating system). Windows Mobile won't be left behind in this category as AT&T is scheduled to get the Samsung Pivot and the HP iPAQ K3.

(via: Phone Arena)