BlackBerry Thunder touchscreen phone in live shot
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted June 8th 2008 12:26PM
posted June 8th 2008 12:26PM
posted June 8th 2008 12:26PM
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Ugh, and I just bought a Curve too.
Verizon. UGLY LOGO EVER!! I wouldn't even buy their phone just because of their LOGO.
Now I won't watch James Cameron movies because he can't speak english.
That doesn't look ANYTHING like an iphone at all !!!
ugh I just bought mine four days ago too!
But if you check phonearena, you'll see that its not due out until 2009, so I figure there's nothing to be done.
toxic-penguin.com
oftheshrub.org
dont worry its just a touch screen - its still missing accelerometers, IR sensors, multi-touch, WiFi minimum 8GB of storage and a bad ass UI for it to be a real iPhone competitor.
@Andrew
Correct. All they are doing is emulating MS Method of Operation. Wait for someone to innovate first. Then product a product within a year and call it innovative. Looks like another "me too" product.
DAMN YOU RIM!
YOUR PRODUCTS ARE TOO DAMN SEXY!!!
I'm still holding out for the Xperia, but this is shaking my faith...
This looks really cool. Unfortunately it's on Verizon... great data, insane prices.
@ Andrew: most recent Blackberries (including the 9000) have Wifi - safe bet this will too.
@ Jubei: please SHUT UP about the idea that this (and every other touchscreen phone) is ripping off Apple / iPhone. Apple made a great UI with multi-touch and accelerometer being the main innovations. But everything else - touchscreen, hi-res screen, Wifi, a browser, email, mp3 playback, video, etc - already existed in smart phones YEARS before the iPhone came along. Great for apple that there are a lot of ignorant people who think that they somehow invented this stuff. But it's not true.
So as there is no evidence yet of multi-touch or accelerometer, please tell us ONE THING that RIM is ripping off of Apple with this? One thing that wasn't already in about 100 other smart phones before the iPhone came along?
thought not...now go back to class!
A blackberry without a a real qwerty keyboard?!?!
Yeah, exactly... For some weird reason I was under the assumption that it would be something like a Bold + Touchscreen... That would have been a big winner in my books.
*screams*
THIS IS TOOOOO UNREAL.
*pulls hair out and runs for shelter*
huh.....wait until august and get out of att and possibly get this,stay and get the new iphone,or wait til september for the xperia and see what network that's gonna be on,unless it's unlocked(cant remember if it is or not)....
Way too many choices....
Opinions would be insightful though.
Really, Ace, it depends on what you're looking for. Personally, if I had the resources, I'd get the Xperia without a doubt. It's design is gorgeous and it has every feature I deem important. I mean, just look at the radios it supports, then it has GPS, WiFi, a physical keyboard....it's awesome, we all know the features. The problems with comparing that phone to either the iPhone II or Thunder is that we don't know the specs they're packing for sure.
Like you said, I guess it's just a wait-and-see sort of thing. From the phones you're thinking of, I really cannot get a clear sense of what type of user you are. The iPhone is a consumer device, BB have traditionally been business oriented and WinMo devices normally are a fair compromise. Again, for me Xperia all the way. Thunder isn't an option because I don't have VZW. But if the iPhone II is subsidized....it would look even more attractive.
@derX
Thanks for the insight.
Basically I'm an all around user.I do plan a lot of events though,txtin is my best friend,official music lover,gamer,and like to mod/hack.
I also dont have a mac,if that makes a difference.
Personally I was leaning towards a Xperia too,especially cause I've been using Ericsson cell's for a while and tend to like them.
But the iphone is a pretty good looking device,and I do love my music and tend not to like huge bulges coming out of my pants on the side due to cell,ipod,etc.
Maybe I''l just get my mum one cell and ill get a different one and basically get to use either whenever i want.
There goes my dream of an iPhone with a full key-pad. Damn RIM for ruining my dreams! Aaaahhhhhhhh
what's wrong with WinMo? HTC's been building touchscreen phones, with keyboards, long before the iPhone
WinMo has very poor support for the BES. For me the blackberry enterprise server is an essential job requirement.
Yeah, the phone seems sufficiently wide, I don't see why they didn't do the form factor like the Siemens SX66 with a keyboard that slides down. I am just really interested to see how this one plays out. I've always thought that if any two companies were going to even come close to an iPhone competitor it would be RIM or Nokia. It'll be very, very interesting to see how this pans out.
Well, as a tech who deals with older blackberries (7250s, 7750s, etc) all the time, I do appreciate the extra reliability and lifespan the device gets from a lack of a fold or slide.
I think we can now see the iPhone as a pioneer for the touchscreen phones, instead of other phones "copying" the iPhone.
Hmm... I think you meant the HTC Wallaby as a pioneer?
Touchscreen phones were around long before the iPhone, all apple did was make them trendy, hence other manufacturers rushing to compete...
No, I think he meant iPhone, I mean come on, RIM is SURELY copying Apple with that big screen and silver/metallic finish, Apple was the first to do that!
(*sarcasm*)
well mainly one of the first phones that brought multi touch screens and applications that can take advantage of all the features. Also the iPhone is more consumer orientated then "prosumer" orientated such as the blackberry which is there for blackberry email and such.
Other WinMo phones are also business phones, the iPhone really isnt
Its meant as and Ipod and a phone not mainly for emails or important business events.
Seriously, it's really annoying how people keep downplaying the iPhone's importance. Again, I'm not Apple-whore, hell, I'm writing this post off of Windows XP and I'm listening to my Zune (what can I say, I love a bargain).
I am not at all saying that the iPhone was the first touchscreen phone: it was not. I am not going to say it's features are revolutionary: they aren't...in fact, they're quite lacking. However, did the design of the phone revolutionize the industry? Uhh, YEAH. How many devices can you name with a touchscreen that large, with so few buttons that was intended to be used entirely with a finger--no stylus.
Yeah, the LG Prada did come first. Did Apple copy them? Well, duh, no, just look at the timing of the announcement of both products. They're we about a month apart. Also, the Prada had a stylus if I remember correctly.
Moral of the story, the iPhone was not foretold by Apostles but it's a pretty damn important phone. Is it the best one ever made? Quite debatable (though the answer is no =]).
Actually, I think he has it right. The iPhone pioneered the first actually usable, single finger interface. It is the best touchscreen on the market, hands down.
Pretty sure you can trace history back to the original Apple Newton as the first widely available touch screen device. After that project was dismantled engineers left Apple to start Handspring who created the first Treo. Palm eventually bought Handspring and continued the Treo line under the Palm name until they milked it for all they could. Modern smart phones are a response to the success of that Treo line.
Now that the technology has finally caught up Apple is able to make a proper touch screen smart phone in the spirt of all those devices that have come before it.
There's a lot of history in tech and I tend to respect those that innovated and tried something new and different over those that just copied a new idea and managed to move more units.
The placement of those convenience keys could easily become inconvenient.
I had an 8830 and 8800 and always turned off the convenient keys. They are conveniently located exactly where you grab the phone.. It seemed I would hit them all the time..
'Please say a command'....
Now with 2, I'm sure you'll be escaping out of unwanted applications twice as much.
I think RIM needs to understand the market for the iPhone and the market for a blackberry are extremely different. There are things that they can learn, but don't mimmick.. Try working on the reliability and uptime...
exactly. I am forever punching the voice dial key. Another key opposite would be hellish. I wonder if they do ergonomics testing...
I also appreciate the physical keyboard: I can touch type with one thumb if in a jam. Not sure how that would translate to keys on a screen.
Blackberry is a poor multimedia device (music doesn't work through a bluetooth earpiece and video is a joke) so I wonder if they can really compete in this direction.
On my Curve it's the "p" key that gives me the most hassle. For whatever reason, I almost always hit that key inadvertently. For some time I had a speed dial number set to that key and called the person all the time.
And yes, I used the key lock, but like anyone, I'm infallible. Even when I had it set to lock itself automatically the "p" would still beat it to the punch.
Other than that I'm less thrilled about the trackball than I am the convenience keys. I miss my jog dial, my carpal tunnel-inducing job dial.
"live shot?" It doesn't seem to be updating by the second.
In fact, it looks like a diagram from an owner's manual.
Prada has no stylus
Feck, meant to be a reply to the one below...
From what is shown here (although not much is...), I think so far so good. I like that RIM, although it's an obvious a model to compete with the iPhone, is still keeping the Thunder as close it is to all their BlackBerry models with their convenience keys and the end, talk, escape and menu buttons. But still, I don't see this BlackBerry being released any time soon, something as big as this to compete with the iPhone should be throughly be tested for any sort of bugs before hitting the market. Again, it's a nice start.
I remember when iPhone hit the streets (and the rumoured hit the streets) all the nay sayers (RIM, M$, et al) said that the touch screen is a fad and people will still prefer the tactile feel of real buttons.
Hmmmm....
I guess the "real" buttons are still there with the many buttons on the side of this model.
Well, you know, call me a fanboi, but I still prefer my iPhone rather than an iPhoney...
Cheers.
Well you really can't say it isn't a fad. I mean yes, Apple had excellent results with their first iPhone but that's only now you don't know what the future will bring. Just because Apple sold a few million doesn't necessarily mean this is necessarily be the future. Once Apple has the majority of market share in the smartphone market, then you can argue that "a touchscreen is more than just a fad, it is now and the future"
And we all know that Apple will NEVER, EVER, EVER gain the majority of the Smartphone market as long as Nokia are still breathing.
NEVER.
I think RIM was right... I know it's not a useful scientific study or anything, but most of the business users of smart phones that I have talked too have scoffed at the idea of trying to type e-mails on anything less then a QWERTY keypads. We have about 150 blackberries, and almost every one of them request the full keypads. Only about 30 have the weird half-pads.
@enga..blah blah
i never knew companies could breathe.
=)
I think people look at RIM making a touchscreen handset in the wrong way. A touchscreen BlackBerry will never be RIM's flagship model, or a model that they will solely focus on. RIM isn't stupid, they know full well that a physical QWERTY will always be favored over a touchscreen QWERTY amongst power users. Seeing how RIM already has the majority of the market share in smartphones (44.5%?) adding this model to interest consumer's can only help pad their lead.
The future in smartphones is anything Apple makes it to be. They'll set the standard and the others will just try to keep up.
Although this Thunder is a great idea, I still can't figure out who RIM is targeting this Thunder for. BlackBerry users only want to use QWERTY keyboards, so why would they upgrade to this model. A BlackBerry user would be lost without the scrollpad. If they are targeting users outside of the BlackBerry realm, those potential buyers will have probably already bought iPhones unless they're not willing to switch carriers. If Thunder is a well-built smartphone, then it will sell in decent numbers, but it just seems like a contradiction for RIM.
I was waiting for you to rear you stupid head, Steffen! Apple will never dominate in the smartphone market and that is nothing but simple fact. Catching up to Symbian's gargantuan marketshare at this point in the game is just something that even Steve Jobs could never dare to dream about.
Yahh trick yahhhhh!
What are the odds this thing will have WiFi? Or will Verizon have it removed?
You KNOW VZW is gonna remove it! NO WAY they'd let you buy a phone and not charge you for a data plan. I love the VZW reps reasoning behind that: " Well Wi-Fi isnt everywhere, so we make sure you always have data coverage with our network."
Should just be a matter of modifying your service books, I'd think. If verizon does disable it, expect a third-party "patch" to re-enable it.
@Justin42
A third party patch? I wish! It seems most of the hacking community is not interested enough to bother with Blackberry patches. I mean I havent yet come across a patch to unlock the GPS on Verizon Pearl yet, and I WOULD be willing to pay for it!
Please someone unlock my GPS?!?!
http://www.cyberlawonline.com/cyberlawg/general-interest/suit-challenges-verizon-on-blackberry-gps.html
Didn't see any hackers out there either. It -seems- to me that it would just be a matter of modifying the service books... but if it was that easy then someone would have done it already? *shrug*