Does anyone know if and when the 7100 series might be available for Verizon?

I heard late summer. But we'll see, they are usually the last out the gate for every model Blackberry.

What year?

Knowing Verizon, probably 2010.

The differences between the 7100's are all cosmetic because they are all GSM phones. Verizon is CDMA which means the phones will have to be completely redesigned inside.

Word - but Sprint (also CDMA) doesn't seem to have problems releasing "new" phones (maybe not blackberry but they had camera phones about a year before Verizon).

Sprint and other carriers may be first to market, but the goal is to be BEST-in-market.

3rd or 4th quarter is the anticipated launch date for the Verizon 7150 BBerry model.

Two years ago Sprint laid out their "no need for the BlackBerry" strategy for me. Thanks, but no thanks.

7150 model? Is this real or bS?

I am also interested in the 7100 (or 7150, whatever) on Verizon, and just spoke to a RIM sales rep. He was very non-committal, but did say to keep checking Blackberry.com "during the summer". Guess we'll see. I hope it will have EVDO, I just decided against the Treo 650 on Verizon as their just released version doesn't support EVDO.

True - VZW is usually behind in equipment introductions, but it is because of the rigorous testing the manufactures have to do to produce a quality enough product for the service. That way you dont have the t-mobile like effects of removing poor models like the sidekick.

My engineering friends tell me that a big disadvantage of PDA's with phones in them (like Treo and BB) on CDMA is that you can't be using voice and data simultaneously. So, for example, if you are doing email, your phone calls will goto Voice Mail instead of your phone and conversely if are talking on the phone, your emails won't be delivered to you until you are done- nor will you get a notification. The former is much more irritating and worse than the latter.

This is not true with GSM.

I confirmed this with my friends at Good and another friend who has the Treo on Sprint: he can not talk and receive data at the same time. This will not be unique to Palm devices- it is a CDMA issue.

I'm attempting to find out more because I've been a die hard CMDA addict for ever but recently have begun using the 7100g on Cingular and like to be able to talk and do email/IM/apps at the same time.

Can anyone shed light on this- pretty sad for CDMA.
I would make the BB a lot less useful of a device if true (whcih so far it appears to be).

-Marc

I have read that with EV-DO CDMA will support either 1) cleanly switching between voice and data or 2) allowing both at once. In case 1, an email/other data dowload would be interrupted by a phone call and resume when you hang up. That's from internet chatter, not a technical article.
Does anyone have _firm_ information about this? CDMA carriers have great coverage inside the US but possibly losing important calls is a substantial disadvantage.

is the Iden(nextel) network the way so that you can't do voice and data at the same time? or can you check email and talk on the BB at the same time?

ON GSM/GPRS you cannot receive e-mails while you're on a call, but while you're doing e-mails - calls come in just fine. Is it not the same on CDMA BlackBerries?

Not in my experience.

I have a contact at RIM who is reliable and talks to me on the QT. He said the 7150 will be released through the Verizon Business unit in June 05. He has always been accurate in the past. Let's see about this time.

How will the 7150 look?
I hope it will be black like the 7100x from O2.

Yeah thats a cool look. I guess so long as it doesnt look like the Rogers / TMO unit... yick!

Well it's June 05...And there aren't even picutes of these things yet on the net, you'd think that something got leaked by now. Are you sure the numbers are 7150?

I asked my IT guy to nudge our Verizon sales rep for my (small) company, and she replied back to IT that no 71xx models are expected until 4th quarter at the earliest. Now, her job is to sell current models, and you could reason that her telling us that it would come out in June might make us hold off on phones until a 71xx model is released. But since we just ordered 20 more phones last month, I suspect she has no reason to lie.

She also refused to state if the model would be called 7150, nor what features or case colors it might have, even when we pushed and said we wouldn't hold her to anything she told us. She also just might not know, and its safer to "neither confirm nor deny" than to just say "I dunno".

Sucks, since I just spent a weekend borrowing a buddies 7100t and think its a great phone. We'll see what happens; personally, I'm hoping for June.

A Rim rep told me today the the "7130" is being released by late fall but no word on features yet.

I am keen on getting a Verizon 7100 model that has GSM capabilities. A rep in a NYC store told me that they are coming out with a model on Sept 15th that is GSM/through Vodafone...does this make any sense to anyone?

If that were to happen, the GSM would be 900/1800 and would not work in the U.S.

That doesn't make any sense as Verizon is a CDMA operator and does not have a GSM/GPRS network in the USA.

My Verizon rep told me that he has been told November and that the model # would be 7130. He also said that EVDO testing has started for the 7250 but didn't know how it was going.

Bunker

Verizon already has some phones (no data devices) that switch to GSM while overseas, but will not work on GSM in the states (CDMA only here). I've got one user with one of those devices, and have heard no complaints yet. He's had it since October of last year. If the new BB has int'l capability, that would be sweet!

That phone is probably US CDMA and Euro GSM.

November? That works out pretty well for me - my contract for tmobs runs out in October!

I hope Verizon starts to get some products that are not strictly business focused - ie, the 7100. They alaredy have a great reputation among for reliability among the business users, expansion into the non business sector would only help them gather more marketshare. Plus - good data + voice package would be helpful, but this is wishful thinking...

I think I will like the 7100 when it comes to Verizon. My 7250 is a great email device that is an OK phone. I want a great phone that will also do emails but with the emphasis on phone.

Yeah? My guess is you may be in the minority.

I'm one of the minority. Waiting for a VZW 7130e

i agree with 2010...verizon was always WAY behind on feature-rich technology...while they DO have the best service when it comes to signal strength, all their phones suck...How long did they expect people to be satisfied with Nokia 5190? i got sick of "Get It Now" and the fact that hacking into a Motorola T720 was impossible at the time...

any update on the 7250 EVDO testing? I use one now and have held off on buying a device-side, full-HTML browser client until I can get 7250 on EVDO. I have heard that they will be upgrading the 7250's to EVDO via a firmware upgrade (I assume that is technically feasible.)

Does anyone have any updated info on 7100 coming out for Verizon?

I was at the Bell Mobility Wireless Innovations Conference in Montreal today and I had the chance to peak at the Bell Mobility CDMA 7130 EVDO device... VERY NICE...

The device is all black and looked at lot like the O2 version of the 7100... Not sure if it will stay the same until officially released (I was told December 05)... But if it does... WOW!

Don't ask me about performance... I didn't get a chance to test drive it... "Look but don't touch". But listening to the folks from RIM... It's going to be amzing.

Also... During the presentation from RIM today, the 7250 was also featured as being the first generation EVDO device on the Bell Network... So it's coming guys.

Cheers!