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
on the Verizon Wireless network, lacks hard keyboard/keypad.