BlackBerry to Encroach on Treo, Epix Space

Windows Mobile devices have often had touchscreens and a variety of form factors. The touchscreen and ease of use made the Treo a success story in its early days, with the Treo Pro being the latest from Palm to bear the touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard in a candybar form factor. Palm's success in that space has warranted others to imitate the form factor, including devices running Windows Mobile with and without touchscreens. Now, it looks like Research in Motion will be joining that space with the same candybar QWERTY form factor and touchscreen on its forthcoming BlackBerry series.

Not much is known about the BlackBerry Onyx, Driftwood, and Magnum at this point except that the Onyx and Magnum will have 480 X 360 screen resolution and will be coming to AT&T with rumors that the Driftwood will arrive on T-Mobile. A Blackberry with hardware keyboard and full touchscreen has been rumored for some time and The Boy Genius Report is speculating that these three models may be the touchscreen BlackBerry that retains the traditional QWERTY. This could be BlackBerry's next "bold" move--a Bold with a touchscreen.