Maybe not at first. But hopefully within the year..

LOL....hey, it was even worse when I owned the treo 700w. I am getting my wife a new phone today, so that makes me in a good position to not get in trouble when the pearl comes out and I buy it...lol.

I am starting to think that this is not going to come out anywhere near the "rumored" may 7 launch. I have been waiting since september of last year for this to come out for verizon....this might just push me to get the htc s720 when it comes to verizon.

Wirelessly posted (7130e: BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I have a feeling you're right. I think we will have a very long wait.

i hear you man. but to tell you the truth, verizon won't care as long as you are still on verizon.

i'm waiting a little longer to see what the BB offerings for verizon will be this year, but if things don't look up by Oct. (which looks likely), it's Tmo time for me.

The only problem is that verizon will have me as a customer forever. You can not touch their service where I live. so i guess they can just torture me a little longer. I dont think that i can wait until october though. I hear the RIM has some conference coming in early May. If it is not said when the pearl will come out during that I am gong to a windows device

Does anyone know what colors in which Verizon will offer the 8100?

The wife is pretty partial to the red one floating around, but we're Verizon people so... Well you know how it goes being a Verizon customer.

With the official announcement today of 8830(may 14, 28) for VZW I wouldn't count on 81xx anytime soon.

Well my guess is that another BB will be offered by VZW late 3Q or 4Q. Since the 7130e is almost 2 years old, a Pearl would fit those who like the smaller device w/SureType.

no, because its not being introduced

Is there any solid evidence?!?!?!?!? Please tell me this was not just one persons opinion that got everyone all stirred up. I know that this thing is coming out someday, but i was hoping that it would sooner rather than later. Someone come to this threads rescue and tell us that there will be a pearl before the end of july.

does anyone know if the pearl has GPS? my friend has a t-mobile pearl but i've never thought to ask him

yeah, im kinda doubting the pearl release myself, the 8830 is coming out the 28th of may for consumers(regualars) i guess, but im kinda wondering if there was just a rumor that verizon was getting a new blackberry in general and it was the 8830, and the pearl was just a rumor thats susiding now, does anyone know FOR SURE that verizon is getting the pearl besides phonearena?

Nope

I have been told by vzw (my nat'l acct mgr) that the next bb (after the 8830) should be out in late Q4, but no info on what model and this info was back in Feb. Not sure what to think, if vzw does release 81xx it could be in that time fram right before the holidays, but who the h3ll knows with vzw and when or if they release there units...

Quoted from a Sales Representative on Verizon Wireless Online Chat:

"The Blackberry Pearl will not ever be released with Verizon Wireless, we expect a new Blackberry addition of our own very soon."

Typical short sightedness on Verizon's part. I guess the endless Motorola and LG clones are so much better.

I'm assuming the Vz Pearl will have evdo speeds right?

I am on Cingular now it it sucks! slooowwww

All of vzw's bb have edvo (rev 0), if you in an area that has that service.

Where did you see this announcement? I must have missed it.

Never mind - I'm an idiot. I found it.

is there any actual articles on the web that show anything proving that the pearl is coming out? i love the pearl, i totally want one, i have verizon, im thinking about switching carriers just to get it, and im going on vacation for 2 months in mid june...does anyone know if its coming out before then?

I am in the same boat. But i am not willing to jump to another carrier. I would wait until next week when WES is going on. If you dont hear anything next week then you may have to wait a long time for anything like the pearl to come out. I would even go out on a limb and say that verizon will probably carry the next generation suretype and not the pearl, if it is not announced at WES.

The problem is the next suretype model hasn't even been announced for GSM yet. Couple that with a 6 mos+ wait after that for the CDMA version, if they get it at all (8100), and your looking at a year from now at best. I do like the new 8300 announced today though for AT&T.

RIM is saying that they are trying to not have the "lag" they have had in the past with gsm to cdma. They also stated that 2/3 of their business is in the US and they want to make the largest carrier of the US happy. Which is now verizon. Of course saying that you are going to do something and actually doing it are two different things.

Well, not to state the obvious, but it's the 7th and no Pearl for Sprint. Oh well, I suppose I'll wait until July for the 8830.

Looks like my fantasies of upgrading from a Treo 650 to a Pearl have been dashed. I'd love to have a Peal but it'd be too much switch my phone, my wife's phone and my EV-DO plan all to Cingular.

Heck, there's not even any good rumors about this phone ever coming to Sprint.

Verizon isnt the largest Wireless company in the United States. As of the close of 4th quarter in 2006, they were slightly more than 2 million subscribers behind Cingular/ATT. They MIGHT be larger if you take into account the landline and internet divisions, but even that is going to be close. If current trends hold, Verizon Wireless WILL BE the largest wireless carrier, but they are only gaining about 200k subscribers in terms of Net Adds per quarter more than ATT.

this is too bad, with mother's day coming around it would of been sweet to get a awesome deal on two pearl's, one for me and one for my wife that I am trying to push over to the smartphone arena. I almost signed up with t-mobile who has no service where I live just to get the pearl...lol

here is where i got the info about verizon being the largest wireless provider now

Verizon retakes US wireless subscriber lead from AT&T - Engadget Mobile

but, back on topic....rimarkable.com has a link now saying the pearl in the 2nd q

April - May - June is the 2Q. I doubt we will see it 2Q.

their 7130 is gray, their 8703 is black, we'll see what they come up with.

In case anyone missed it, there are now new reports (May 7th) that state VZW will be releasing the Pearl Q2 to compete with the iPhone. They expect a huge push by Verizon around the iPhone's release which can only mean sometime in early to mid June. Take it for what it's worth.

Here's a quote from the article:

RIM's New BlackBerry Curve Breaks Over The Plate: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Q2 of next year?

Here is another quote
RIM may also launch an 8800 based on EV-DO. Bell, Telus are also expected to launch these products, timing TBA (Sprint unknown).

Isn't the 8830 EVDO? Sounds like the writers have no idea what they are talking about. Don't put much stock in their Pearl prediction.

You probably are right, but technically speaking even though the 8830 is the CDMA variant of the 8800, they are different devices. Also note that Bell, Telus and Sprint have all announced the availability of the 8830 on their networks by the time this was written. So there are two ways to take this...either there is some new secret variant of the 8800 for CDMA, or the report has shaky details. I for one am with you Argon...like I said, "Take it for what it's worth." Just wanted to share the "news" and thought it was interesting how they specifically said the release will coincide with the iPhone.

not really, there just saying that the other networks havent announced their release dates yet...

I believe Sprint will be releasing the 8830 on June 17th. We'll see how long that date sticks.

As for Verizon: Let's just wait and see what the next week brings. You may be surprised.

Interesting, especially since Sprint's announcement page for the 8830 says "available July 2007". I'd love for you to be right, however!

would be cool if there is still a chance of a pearl coming VZW's way as to stop me from buying the 8830 and then being pissed when a multimedia BB is released such as the pearl.