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'Niagara' BlackBerry Falling Toward Summer Release On Verizon?

The rumor mill has churned out reports of a new BlackBerry headed to Verizon Wireless later this year. The Niagara, as it is called, would be another world phone for Verizon, able to work on its network in the United States as well as networks in Europe and Asia.

According to a source trusted by The Boy Genius Report, Verizon is set to bow the BlackBerry Niagara in May or June of 2009. The Niagara, model number 9630, looks similar in appearance to the Bold, and has a full QWERTY keyboard, trackball, and standard BlackBerry controls.

Similar to the BlackBerry Storm, the Niagara will sport EV-DO Rev. A for super, high-speed wireless here in the United States, as well as quad-band GSM/EDGE and unspecified HSDPA support for data and voice connectivity overseas. Also like the Storm, it will lack Wi-Fi, meaning it can only connect via cellular networks and not free Wi-Fi hotspots.

This radio configuration is what I think is most interesting for the Niagara. It will be the latest smartphone that business customers can use both in the U.S. and abroad, just as those used by AT&T and T-Mobile customers. It means that Verizon has acknowledged the limits of its CDMA-based network here in the United States. Business users who buy CMDA-only smartphones won't be able to use them when they travel to Europe, and will be forced to use other solutions. Verizon recognizes this and is making sure its top-of-the-line smartphones can cater to the enterprise in the best way possible. That means being able to work in Europe.

Other details included a 3.2-megapixel camera (which the Storm also has), support for JavaScript 1.6 in the browser (a small step up), and BlackBerry OS 4.7.1.

None of this has been confirmed by RIM or Verizon, of course, but the specs are a good start and make sense given RIM's current line up of devices.

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