You won't get a VZW or RIMM Employee to tell you anything "officially".

Your best hope is to make friends with a business account rep. I manage my employeers BB and phones from VZW (over 200) and our rep will tell me yes or no if I ask, but he knows I'll keep it quiet.

They are under strict orders not to divulge future products. The reason is simple. They want you to buy a phone today, not tomorrow. They don't want people waiting for two months to become a customer if they can get them today.

I was surprised at the 8830 launch when VZW actually announced it was coming a few days before it was available and then only sold it through business channels for a couple weeks.