BlackBerry Bold 9650 will ship in May, RIM says
(Read article summary)RIM today unveiled the BlackBerry Bold 9650, an upgraded, CDMA-compatible take on the popular BlackBerry Tour. But RIM stocks tumbled on Monday, amid fears that RIM is losing the smart phone game to Apple and other competitors.
Finally – some smartphone news that has absolutely nothing to do with Apple or the new iPhone OS. On Monday, Research In Motion introduced the BlackBerry Bold 9650, essentially an upgraded, rejiggered version of the top-selling BlackBerry Tour. According to RIM, a CDMA version of the BlackBerry Bold 9650 will ship on May 23 to Sprint Nextel and Verizon customers.
The price tag is 200 bucks, after a $100 mail-in rebate.
So what's so great about the Bold 9650? Well, for one, RIM has swapped out the traditional BlackBerry trackball, which is notorious for collecting lint and assorted gunk, for an optical trackpad. But the big update for the Bold 9650, pictured at left, is Wi-Fi support, a functionality noticeably missing from the BlackBerry Tour.
