I was at a Bell Corporate Office yesterday for business. A Bell employee I was speaking to mentioned that they would launch Pearl in January of 2007. Time will tell I suppose.

I wouldn't count on it for January.

I'll believe it when I see it. I've never seen a GSM/CDMA device turnover that fast.

I'm equally suspicious - just thought I'd let everyone know what I heard. This is the rumor mill after all

Are you sure they said January 2007 and not 2008?

Positive, asked him twice myself. My only suggestion is that it maybe the 8800?? Not sure if they would release two QWERTY-berry's back to back without a SureType-berry in between releases.

I highly doubt that an 8800 model will see the light of day on a CDMA provider until 2008. We might get the Pearl sometime in 2007 but probably not until Q4.

i had a chat with the hardware GM of BM, the first BB next year will be the GSM/CDMA world BB, no pearl on the map as of yet.

That is in line with what we are, consistently, hearing from RIM.

That is some exciting news! My 7103e feels like an old brick phone compared to the new Pearl.

Any speculation on whether it would be suretype or full QWERTY?

If it's the Pearl then it would be SureType.

Yeap positive. I know what I heard. Admittedly I'm equally suspect of the validity of this rumor, I suppose we'll know better in January.

i heard rumors from the local small business mobility team about the Crimson coming(8800 with camera) coming next year, but i think that might have been just rumors.

unfortunately, if the GM of hardware purchasing doesn't know about it, it'll remain as a dream.. dream that i was hoping it'd come true this spring. he wasn't hiding anything, as he told me about the rev A ev-do devices coming out.

i heard it's QWERTY.

There is no Pearl slated for release this January for Bell Mobility according to a family friend of mine who works for Bell Mobilty in one of their regional offices.

C'mon, anyone who has been using Bell Mobility for any length of time should know that ten Bell employee's asked the same question will provide ten different answers. The only people who really know are the team responsible for bringing in new units and they're usually pretty tight lipped. Store rep's get some advance notice but it's not much.

Mind you it's a nice dream, I hope the rumour is true.

I heard from a Telus rep that a new BB is coming in Jan. He doesn't know if it's the pearl or a new qwerty BB, but he said a new one is coming out. He did mentioned they had acessories for the pearl

That would be great. Did he mention any info re date of availability/launch?

January 18th and no Pearl in sight. Has anyone heard any fresh rumours?

OK, if noboday has any updated rumours, I guess I will have to update them myself. I got this quote from my Bell rep at end of day yesterday.

"We should be getting a World BlackBerry coming out in the middle of this year – June/July. It will work on the CDMA and GSM network (while roaming outside of North America). It will have a similar form factor to the pearl; however, it will have a FULL QWERTY keyboard."

Wooohooo. Can't wait

Has anyone heard which GSM networks the world phone will support? HSDPA or only EDGE?

We wont see an EDGE blackberry in 2007. Ive heard a confirmed rumor that the 8800 will be released in March with Rogers and then 90 days later by belus (or just telus, not sure)

Just to clarify, you're saying we won't see a CDMA + EDGE BB in 2007?

Sprint will be releasing one around Q3.... I can't see why be/lus wouldn't be next in line.

Question remains - EDGE or HSDPA?

More importantly, we've heard this will be a QWERTYberry - will it look like the 8700 or something completely different?

Ooops I meant HSDPA blackberry in 2007. Sorry.

Usually telus/bell releases a blackberry about 12 months after rogers releases it, but apparently it is going to change with the 8800. Rogers will get it in March and then belus (CDMA) will get it 90 days later.

looks like the cdma/gsm bb is coming end of this quarter.. and there is another bb slated for BM by the year's end..

A friend of mine knows someone at RIM, there about forty minutes away from me and the Pearl QWERTY we heard was March/April but didn't who the carrier would be.

so.. check this out... the 8830.. word is that Q2 is the timeframe..

Well... I know P_Dizzo very well.. And he has always been a reliable source of information... I don't think we can classify the 8830 World Edition (CDMA/DSM) as a rumor...

Thanks P_Dizzo for sharing the picture with us!!!

haha, thanks Pentarus. Pizzle can eat his own words later in Q2. :P

Think it could be a long wait for the 8800 on Bell unless their getting one of the other models. I approached Bell to see if I could add an 8800 to my exisitng plan if I purchased elsewhere since they are not carrying it. Essentially the response was no. Details of the conversation can be found on our site here: BlackBerry Edge » Blog Archive » Getting an 8800 in Canada?

well, your approach will never work, many cdma carriers don't let hardware from other cdma carriers to be on their network, let alone gsm hardware on a cdma network. 8800 is currently gsm, complete different technology then what bell and telus uses. as 8800 is gsm, yes, you're right, bell will never get it. they are however getting the 8830. you'll see. it's right on par if you notice how verizon is ready to launch the "cyclone", which is labelled as the 8830 as well.

I called up my Bell rep in Vaughan and I reserved my 8800 for delivery end of April, that is the word. This unit will have GSM, for use around the world.

I saw this I called a couple bell reps here in calgary and no luck, I wonder if the east is ahead of the west??

Not sure, but both our Bell and Telus reps have be promising a World BlackBerry launch this summer some time. Of course Neither would provide a firm date. Since summer runs until Sept 20, I would suspect launch date would be Sept 30th....

I don't own a smartphone yet. I was going to get a Win Mobile based one till I did some research and found that (from most reviews) BB is the most reliable. Also, there seems to be a lot of hype around them from BB users. So I'm sold on the BB's but I really want a multimedia player on it. A Telus rep just told me Thursday that the 8830 is going to be available in Q3. I don't know if I can wait that long, I'm itchying for a new gadget. Telus has offered any data phone free on a 3 year renewal but it expires May 24. Should I wait till the last min (in hopes for a hail mary pass that Telus gets the 8830 b4 then) and get the 8703e to get my feet wet or should I renew in Q3 and get a phone discount on the good looking 8830? Do you think that Telus will still give me a free data phone in Q3? I would definitely wait if that were the case.

Thanks,

TOG

I was in a Bell Mobility store tonight and asked about upcoming handsets. The rep (corporate store) told me he was surprised that the new BB was not out yet. He called it the Panther and said it was the CDMA/GSM unit. Apparently they have seen them and had some introduction to them.

I guess I keep on waiting.

DooDad,

There seems to be a lot of buzz about the BB 8830 coming out in Q-2/Q-3 through Bell Mobility. I'm trying to be patient but it's getting more difficult to wait.

We are now in April so I say c'mon BELL/RIM, put us out of our misery - sooner rather than later, more rather than less (where have we heard that before): wink:

CarBob

Today I was on the phone with 2 different bell reps at different times and they both refered to the new blackberry as the "panther", the second rep I spoke to, seem to know more. He mentioned it is based on the 8800 series but more features-he said 8803e. He couldn't promise a date but he did say bell was already done testing and getting ready to launch. He told me if I don't hear an announcement by the end april to call.

I think the wait is due to rigorous testing with Qualcomm chips & licensing. Once that's taken care of then production test models and testing with CDMA based providers can begin.