Mobile Mania

Sorry it’s not the greatest picture in the world, but at least we can put a face to the specs and info. We dropped word of the Blackberry Gemini a while back, and it looks to be cross between an 8300 and an 8900. Ugh, the madness never stops. Then again, did you really expect something different for an “updated BlackBerry Curve?” Here’s the information we published earlier:

• OS 5.0
• 320×240 resolution screen
• QWERTY (really?)
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n (again, not too sure on the n part)
• 2.0 megapixel camera

Again, really not too much here, just a pretty face. Yes, it’s pretty. And hey, there’s one thing we know… it’s not photoshopped. Not laughing? Oh whatever.

Some Canadians in the market for a new BlackBerry might have noticed that Rogers recently enacted a price hike on the three-year contract prices for some of its most popular BlackBerry devices. The price increases saw the Curve 83xx go to $149.99 (up $50), Curve 8900 to $224.99 (up $25) and the Bold go to $299.99 (up $50). While most handset price increases are done after an evaluation of a supply and demand model, it seems that Rogers decided to throw caution to the wind after some senior executives noticed the budget for acquisitions was currently $30 million in the red. One of our ninjas passed along the following email, allegedly sent out by a Rogers VP:

On Wednesday, the senior executive team realized that they were over budget $30 million dollars on their cost of acquisition. How I don’t know why it took so long. [sic] They then did their knee jerk response. Your DBM’s and other local managers know nothing more than this and are in the dark as much as we are on this other than we were told VERBALLY that in market quotes would be honored for 30 days from today. The exception lists are due Monday and only for non named accounts. I have requested in every region for a positioning statement and to this moment have not heard a response. If it makes you feel any better the retail has even more uncertainty.

Our only question is other than advertising, marketing and promotions, what the hell could Rogers have been spending so much money on to make them go so far over budget in acquisitions? It’s not like they were buying new subcribers steak dinners for signing up…

The BlackBerry "Niagara," or 9600 series, popped up on eBay for about a minute before it was pulled, but you can't hide pictures like these.

The 9600 series is sort of a combination of the Bold and Curve/Javelin series for CDMA, though we don't know a whole lot about it yet. Our own ginger-haired Matt Buchanan called it the "first real next-gen BlackBerry," totally unconcerned about the poor Storm's hurt feelings. Check out the hot pics.

That rumored BlackBerry Bold with a touchscreen was just a whisper before, but now we've got a shot of the packaging to prove its existence. Let's see what we know about this new hybrid.

We'd known it as the Pluto, but now it's been given a traditional RIM numeric identification as the 99xx series. It's got just about the same form factor as the Bold, including the QWERTY keyboard, but with one notable addition and one notable feature missing: It's got a touchscreen in place of the trackball.

This blurry shot shows a Rogers-branded 99xx (a major Canadian carrier), and the 3G device is allegedly due for a late 3rd quarter release up north. "Late 3rd quarter release" is code for "don't bank on this until the 4th quarter", but we're excited nonetheless. We'll continue with updates as we get more info.