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Rumor Round-Up: Now RIM Is Making A Touch Screen Device

The latest scuttlebutt from the Interwebs has purported spy shots of the BlackBerry 9000, a fantastical iPhone look alike that sheds keys entirely for what appears to be a touch screen. Why is my BS meter clanging loudly?

Seriously. A BlackBerry would not be a BlackBerry without a qwerty keyboard. Plain and simple. Business users already have complained loud and clear about the learning curve on the iPhone. Why would BlackBerry risk alienating its core users with a device that's difficult to use? Or at least not so easy a caveman could do it?

While I am sure RIM is working on a 9000-generation device that includes HSDPA-flavored 3G as the reports state, I just don't buy the touch screen angle. Not for BlackBerry. Not unless it really is interested in aiming for the consumer. By I don't think it is interested in diluting the brand a la Palm Centro style any time soon.

Other tidbits in the chaff from the rumor mill are more important for the enterprise. No. 1 being a 600 MHz processor. That means faster application action on your handheld. Whoopee! And the other is an automatic back-up/restore program that is compatible with memory cards stored on the device. In other words, all your data is backed up to a removable microSD card that can be stuck into another device. This is both genius and scary at the same time. It would be nice to see a super SIM have this capability, but that's a whole other discussion.

Anyway, since RIM is still in the middle of launching its 8000 series devices, I think we have a while to sit on this one.

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