BlackBerry Torch 9850 will land at Sprint on August 21
Sometimes I wonder what happened to RIM. At one time, the company was the king of the mobile world, but now it struggle to release a modern device. The Storm was a complete failure, and although the Torch was a solid device, it came out a year and a half too late. The PlayBook showed potential at first, but it also ended up flopping. So, now the company has to play catchup, which is exactly what it is doing with the new BlackBerry Torch 9850.
As detailed in last week's announcement by Sprint, the device will have a 3.7-inch "High resolution Liquid Graphics" display, a 1.2GHz Quallcomm Snapdragon, 768MB of RAM, and 4GB of built in storage. It will also sport a 5MP shooter and GSM compatibility.
On the software side, the device will run BlackBerry OS 7, which is the latest version of RIM's phone OS. Unlike its predecessors, it is optimized for touch. However, it is not the more powerful QNX OS that many people are waiting for.
As you can see from the leaked flyer above, the device is slated for release on August 21st. In my opinion, that is already too late. When you compare it to the HTC EVO, which was released a little more than a year ago, It falls short in a couple categories. Of course, at this point BlackBerry devices will need more than standard or even high-end specifications to be successful. I think they will need something really stellar to convince people to switch from whatever they are already using.
Right now, RIM fans are probably angry with me for ripping on what will probably be a solid device. I have to say, while it may be a great device for BlackBerry users, that does not detract from the fact that it is far behind Apple and Android offerings. Just in case you need proof of that, take note of the way the above flyer promotes the 9850's capacitive display as a headline feature. Yep, you're just a bit late on this one RIM.
[CrackBerry]
