That's right folks an anonymous tipster has sent us shots of the highly anticipated BlackBerry Thunder. The Thunder also known as BlackBerry 9500 will feature a huge 360×480 touch display and will apparently run on OS 4.7. This device will be a great multimedia player and could bring CDMA carriers true iPhone competition. The Thunder will run a carrier music store which similar to the iPhone's iTunes store and will allow users to purchase songs from their device. The display on the Thunder most likely will be a glass surface similar to the iPhone. Click on over for another shot…
The BlackBerry Thunder will also feature a portrait media player for watching movies and videos taken with the handset. Well that's it for now…
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July 7th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Good find, man!
July 7th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Too long, didn’t read.
July 7th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
That´s some real iphone competition, I would buy it
July 7th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
multi touch screen? run Android?
July 7th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
So Wilson Fisk, you’re fat AND lazy?
July 7th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
“run Android?”
khang, can you read? The article says it’s going to run OS 4.7? Do you think that means version 4.7 of the Android OS?
Here’s a dollar, buy a clue!
July 7th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
If anyone read Engadget’s post today… Yes, the pictures are renderings… jeez. With renderings of what the new OS will look like… It’s not an actual shot of a production device.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:29 am
It looks very cool but where’s the keyboard? How are you supposed to type more than 3 words a minute without a physical keyboard?
July 8th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Looks like crap personally if I wanted something that almost worked like or almost looked like an iphone I would just get an iphone. RIMM should just stick to do ing what it does best. Why do they need to try to halfheartedly try to imitate another companies products? Innovation is what they need to focus on not trying to make an “iphone killer”
Everyone knows how all those “iPod killers” turned out. RIMM get back on target!!!!
July 8th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Wow! no matter how you think you have the latest phone, u never do atleast not for long. I better sell my pearl and curve
July 9th, 2008 at 5:14 am
Sorry, it is too little too late. I’m NOT impressed, Iphone still ROCKS so much HARDER! By the time it gets to market how many will have switched to ATT for the Iphone, Verizon is so corny as usual.
July 10th, 2008 at 6:00 am
? think it isnt good enough.it like copy of iphone.bold is much better this
July 10th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I love how all the Iphone lovers try and make every phone that comes close look like crap, this phone is a very good attempt at cutting into Iphone sales, and for verizon customers its about time we get something so we don’t have to switch, the fact still remains that Verizon does have better coverage at least for me, thats why I won’t switch to ATT even if they do have the Iphone. I Love blackberry, and they have always given great products. I guess all the Iphone lovers will just have to wait and see what happens.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
its freakin cool an yes i want one, but wiil it ever come to, ATT? we can only hope so, or even one unlocked…now that would really be nice…might as well call this phone, the “Iphone Killer”
July 10th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
First of all Jay what makes you think that you know anything about designing products for a billion dollar corporation, who are you to say whats halfhearted, the iphone does not even compare to the Thunder, the iphone does not have video capability like the Thunder and the internet is ridiculously slow even on the joke of the “3G Iphone”
And to you miss “noshotgirl” do you think that highest in customer loyalty and highest in customer satisfaction is “corny” i have seen several people who switched to the iphone and switched right back to their previous carrier because AT&T sucks! Or Cingular or whatever they call themselves these days.
And “ci”
You should spare us all and not try to make comments. none of what you said makes sense. “it like copy of iphone” go take an English class.
Wayne Wayne Wayne why would you want this phone to go to AT&T. Why don’t you look up who JD Power and Associates says is the best carrier. Switch to Verizon budy.
July 11th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I have a moto q and it don`t have flash or java but does have a modem on it i love my carrier which is verzion wireless the best company by
far i`ve been with i looked at a iphone and i liked the home screen
color “but“ i dont like the fact that it dont work as a moden for my pc been looing at all of vzw touch pda the dare,audiovox htc and they didnot do it for me so i call vzw and they told me about this black berry thunder that they will be getting soon men i canot wait to get this phone i redo my plan in sep. about the time it hit the store i just hope it live up to the 3g iphone with the home sceen colo and the and you can use your own home sreen on it and the key work well on it can`t wait to work this phone i here it will have mirosolf windows 7
July 11th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Blackberry phones are not and never will feature Microsoft Mobile on them. It is the RIM software that makes the devices what they are.
July 12th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
RIMM absolutely has to compete with Apple at this level. Forget about those other RIMM phones. No one going to want them once this touch screen version releases. Now if RIMM can get the amount of NVM correct they will have succeeded in becoming a viable competitor to Apple. However, if they ship this thing with 1 or 2GB of nand, they will have soarly missed the boat.
The next piece RIMM needs to match is Apples content providing. Movies, songs, games etc. That requires a good SDK and a user friendly media web site.
I’m beginning to think these guys get it. I give them 6 months to get right or Apple will smoke them and the rest of these legacy phone producers stuck on terrible user friendly software and hardware.
July 12th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Does anyone know how thick this blackberry will be? because this thing look hella fat an the sides and top. hopefully they keep it thin and sleep like the 3g iphone.
July 14th, 2008 at 10:26 am
yep
July 20th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
does the thunder have aim??
July 25th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
If these pictures are real the BlackBerry Thunder is about 1/2″ too long. There seems to be about that much space between the edge of the display and the buttons. Makes no sense to me…
July 26th, 2008 at 4:22 am
this phone is raw… i would love to trade my iphone for the bb 9500 thunder and switch to verizon (great network but the phones blow, well until now, and they rip you off with the feature pricing)
it makes me laugh that steve jobs’s first choice was verizon and they cold shouldered him
p.s. i bet gabriel works for verizon ha… seems like a prick but i agree with her ; )
July 29th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
This will still stink. What’s with the buttons on the right side? More “convenience buttons” to do things that I don’t want every time I pick up the phone? Sorry, but RIM has no clue about simplicity and usability. I’m stuck with my second one, thanks to my company, and I’ve hated it from the first day.
July 30th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Man. I can’t wait. This is going to be great!
July 31st, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Hmmm… I thought when the iPhone came out the folks at Blackberry laughed at it and said the iPhone would never sell because it doesn’t have a physical keyboard. Well it looks like the iPhone is selling in the millions and now the copycats at RIM have to get an “iPhone killer” out there with no physical keyboard. RIM is a joke. Go back to the business world and leave all the good products to Apple.
August 1st, 2008 at 12:37 pm
From what I’ve been seeing on other sites regarding the Thunder Vodafone (aka T-Mobile) is also going to be carrying it.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
The iPhone is a toy compared this device. The Thunder is the real deal.
August 16th, 2008 at 11:41 am
What, are all you idiots all 12. It’s not even out on the market and you all act like you know something.
August 21st, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Let’s see what it looks like in October when it releases… I’m due for a new Blackberry - my 7130 is a little dated, and likes to surprise me with JVM 523 errors… I was looking at the bold, but am interested in the Thunder’s touch screen - as well, I’m currently on CDMA, and this device would allow me to stay with the present carrier.
August 21st, 2008 at 12:55 pm
“Tom” I believe vodafone is part of a merger with verizon and regarding the bb thunder i heard it will be an exclusive phone for verizon (in the US) and vodafone (in Europe). Theres also some talk that there was some kind of agreement with verizon that requires them to meet a sales quota for the thunder and if they are unable to the phone goes out to other carriers as well. I’m not quite sure how much of this information is true seeing as how the dang thing won’t come out for a few more months, and they’re sure as hell keeping tight-lipped about all the details. Hopefully they can get all the bugs out of this by the time Nov-Dec comes around this sounds like it will be an awesome device. And for the verizon service i’ll buy.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I want to join
http://www.skilline.com
August 27th, 2008 at 12:06 am
It was really good!
August 27th, 2008 at 12:08 am
It was still really really good!
August 27th, 2008 at 1:26 am
I’m so surprised at gullible people are. DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS PHONE EXISTS??? Think about it. It just so happened to be “leaked” right when the Bold’s picture was posted on RIM’s website. If you go back to that ORIGINAL post, it had a silver border, just like the Bold. Now all of a sudden its got a whole different body. This is just GOOD PHOTOSHOP WORK!!! Nobody has seen one on video. HELL I can make SCREENSHOTS!!!!!!!! Also, Blackberry is a WORLDWIDE manufacturer. Blackberry ALWAYS makes GSM first. A LOT of Blackberry users in the world would LOVE to have a touchscreen Blackberry. WHY IN THE HELL would Blackberry create a CDMA, first ever touch-screen Blackberry and ONLY make it exclusive to VERIZON WIRELESS. I work for them and this is NOT happening. Verizon (of all providers) is ALWAYS last to release a PDA, so what in the world would make you think that they are about to release a WORLDWIDE FIRST!?!?! Anyone want to challenge that???
August 27th, 2008 at 1:39 am
I’m so surprised at gullible people are. DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS PHONE EXISTS??? Think about it. It just so happened to be “leaked” right when the Bold’s picture was posted on RIM’s website. If you go back to that ORIGINAL post, it had a silver border, just like the Bold. Now all of a sudden its got a whole different body. This is just GOOD PHOTOSHOP WORK!!! Nobody has seen one on video. HELL I can make SCREENSHOTS!!!!!!!! Also, Blackberry is a WORLDWIDE manufacturer. Blackberry ALWAYS makes GSM first. A LOT of Blackberry users in the world would LOVE to have a touchscreen Blackberry. WHY IN THE HELL would Blackberry create a CDMA, first ever touch-screen Blackberry and ONLY make it exclusive to VERIZON WIRELESS. I work for them and this is NOT happening. Verizon (of all providers) is ALWAYS last to release a PDA, so what in the world would make you think that they are about to release a WORLDWIDE FIRST!?!?! Anyone want to challenge that???
August 28th, 2008 at 1:10 am
It’s a Lite….
It’s a fact that it’s coming to Verizon. I spoke to a tech last week and when I mentioned I was waiting for the Thunder..she point blank said, it won’t be out for a couple of months. Don’t be mad because you are not one of the lucky ones. It’s about time Verizon got something first. I will be first in line to get one.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
You idiot didn’t you see that I stated that I WORK for VERIZON WIRELESS. This person has never even seen this device nor is there any information on the corporate intranet regarding this device… why? because it DOESN’T EXIST.
I don’t doubt that a touch screen Blackberry is in the makings… hell it’s in demand by users. BUT… it will not be exclusive…THAT WOULD BE STUPID.
August 30th, 2008 at 11:41 am
I Read that this phone will run on 4G and not 3G which will get that much more coverage and speed.
Which means will have many radio frequencies on the phone and will pick up not just Verizon CDMA,Broadband, and EVDO signal frequnecies, but will also pick up GSM, Edge, GPRS, 4G data transfer speeds. (Just what I read somewhere)
The processor is much faster than iphone, and will also have the youtube and full internet browser experience.
What’s really so special about iphone, other than the fact that you can hack’em and download a whole bunch of applications. The 3G phone isn’t even that much faster than original Iphone. Is made of cheaper material than original iphone.
I think Iphone is fun and has a eye-pleasing and easy UI with a whole bunch of applications, but It really just turns out to have the addictive nature of Facebook. The addictive downloading of applications until your iphone crashes.
The strong side of Iphone is the ITunes. The syncing feature and method of itunes music is great. Blackberry and Verizon will have the hardest time to overcome that program.
This blackberry would need the ability to hold massive space like the Apple products. 20GB 40GB will go perfect with the high speed processor.
You know, What good is a high speed processor without massive data to process? So I expect that.
I personally am a Blackberry fan with a curve. My blackberry serves me well in the business sense. I would like to see what this Thunder 9500 will do. I’m pretty sure it won’t be spectacular as everyone thinks it will be but will contain much of the previous features blackberrys and iphones will have ,but souped up, and maybe if they were smart will let some leeway to hackers so that they can create some applications to expand the usefulness of the phone.
If it keeps a balance of having the best of both worlds (Business and Entertainment; Blackberry Vs. Iphone) and the music providing program and service can match or better itunes, I will sell my BB curve and my Ipod Touch 16 GB, I will be happy to pay my contract cancellation fee, and switching over to Verizon.
Verizon and Vodaphone will be the exclusive carriers for this phone.
It seems that this will be Verizons first great new phone that can match its quality of voice data service.
(Everyone knows Most Verizon phones are ugly or they get the good phones late)
August 30th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
This is my opinion on the strategy of Blackberry.
A rationalization to myself to wait for the Thunder 9500 and not get stuck under contract with the bold.
The Blackberry Bold Will Release with AT&T and possibly other GSM carriers around the world.
The Sales will be great and customer feedback will help RIM to fix bugs within the their OS 4.6. (Will help better OS 4.7 which will be the OS for the Thunder as reported) Plus will give time for AT&T to setup more HDSPA signal towers.
Everyone knows that 3G doesn’t mean anything without the towers sending those high speed signals. Most may still be receiving EDGE signals on their 3Giphone if they are not in the coverage for highspeed.
Once RIM and the carriers can perfect this OS by getting feedback from users and overcome the lack of highspeed signal towers, they can show a strong Blackberry force in the market by attracting new Customers while having previous blackberry owners to upgrade. The Bold may arrive into the market strategically timed when the carriers can supply more HDSPA signals which will create a notion that the Blackberry Bold has a better signal and is faster than the 3G iphone amongst normal non-tech savvy people (The majority of the population). Will also create stir and hype amongst the AT&T users, can lead users to easily switch their SIM CARDs out of their iphones and just pick up a blackberry bold influenced through word of mouth.
Now the hype with the Thunder, without official specs and nice mock ups of the device is really getting feedback from users and heavily depended on opinions from tech-geeks so that RIM create a finalized product. This kind of shows targets of who their market is and in this move, RIM is trying to expand their customer targets as well. As this device is obviously now trying to integrate Media with the 4G (EVDO, HDSPA frequncies).
This may be true, since I remember seeing the pictures of the Bold in prototype form way before they announced it.
My guess is that this device still has a long way to go.
I believe that they are going to focus on Blackberry Bold for now and release the Thunder when the Bold Frenzy fizzles. Things in this new and complicated world don’t happen overnight. Everything is Calculated and optimized through strategy to sell and maintain their products and software.
The above opinion is not official or fact, but just my opinion and on a business stand point is very strategic. Just remember iphone release dates and how much money they made. Also With constant software upgrades coming out over Itunes its continually getting better. Every Successful business follows this. Protect, Maintain, and upgrade their products so that customers can trust that the product wont be as obsolete.
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:52 am
Terrific! I’ll swap the demo for my 3G iPhone. What a piece of “poop” the iPhone turned out to be (and I am a MAC guy). If Apple and AT&T don’t get their iPhone act together by the time this Blackberry is released - the iPhone goes to ebay and I buy this Blackberry on Verizon —- BYE BYE AT&T
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:17 pm
It’s a lite.
Than who is the idiot? You work for Verizon and you don’t know what you are talking about. I hope you don’t work for technical support. If I were you, I would stop talking. You are giving Verizon a bad name.
September 4th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Ok you idoits. Lite.. I’m writing to you. Seriously stop putting your own company down. It’s about time Verizon Wireless gets an exclusivity agreement with a vendor for the specific reason being, that they need it for business purposes! It’s Verizon Wireless’s goal to move sales in the right direction to completely trump AT&T without the Iphone.
Just because in the past VZW has never gotten a device before GSM doesn’t mean it will not happen now. Haven’t you ever heard of change???? Is it possible that Verizon Wireless did the right thing and negotiated after receiving feedback from their customers that they are sick of waiting two years for a device that At&t gets first. Didn’t you hear about Verizon Wireless’s way of tracking customer service… it’s the same as Southwest, etc. They get the feedback and take action on it. And like Southwest they will trump all competitors in customer satisfaction, sales, revenue, and most importantly profitability!
They moved on unlimited calling and e-mail first, they moved on the first 3g network, they moved on things they needed to in the past and they are doing it again. Just because they turned down the Iphone doesn’t mean they can’t make good business decisions. I use a mac and I have an ipod. And yes I think it’s a cool device, but to sacrifice being able to check my e-mail when and where I want, being able to make a call when I need to, I won’t buy it.
So Lite… Mr VZW employee… maybe you should go work for the competition since you are so much on their side. I can almost gaurantee this device is in existence… And your pee on self won’t see it until it launches… JUST LIKE ANY OTHER VZW EMPLOYEE!
September 6th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
It’s interesting to see people mouthing off about the BlackBerry 9500 (or “Thunder” if you’re in the US) not existing. You have a problem believing that RIM can develop new phones or is it just that the artistic license people are taking with images that’s bugging you? A few years back there were rumours that Apple were going to make a phone and the posters on boards like this sounded just as agitated.
The UK website Expansys.com who sell mainly unlocked mobiles and gadgets had the BlackBerry 9500 for pre-order a few months back. It was removed from the site because there were no firm dates from RIM. Sounds to me like its going to be an excellent phone and the larger screen is going to be most welcome.