Pearl on Bell Mobility - Jan 2007
 

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.

Ten people ten answers
 

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.

Heard the same thing about Telus too
 

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

(y) 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 xxx8211; 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