Yeesh, Verizon’s been busy: the Motorola droid, the HTC Eris, and now a new BlackBerry. A simple CDMA version of the touchpad-toting Curve currently available on T-Mobile won’t exactly steal the thunder from Verizon’s other announcements, but based on our review of the 8520, the new Curve is a stable, if pared-down, BlackBerry with a few new stylistics twists. Sprint’s picking up the 8530 as well, and yes, both have Wi-Fi, a 2 megapixel camera without flash, optical trackpad, and 320 x 240 display like the original, but has the added bonus of 3G over EV-DO. Sometimes I wish BlackBerrys kept their cool codenames, like Aries in this particular case, especially now when there are three distinct families of Curves. In any case, you can sign up for notifications of Sprint’s version, or hold out for Verizon’s which will run $99.99 on contract after rebates, and be available November 20.
[via RIM, BusinessWire]
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement.
With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.