New York - Research In Motion plans in late June or July to release its first BlackBerry to combine touchscreen and hard QWERTY keyboard, RIM representatives have told enterprise customers.

The QWERTY keyboard/dialing keypad will slide down vertically from the phone.

RIM declined comment. "It is RIM's standard policy to decline comment on rumors and speculation," a spokeswoman said.

The device would provide a hard QWERTY keyboard and dialing keypad for heavy email users while providing touchscreen convenience.

RIM's current touchscreen phone, The Storm II on the Verizon Wireless network, lacks hard keyboard/keypad.