BlackBerry Slider Phone Caught on Video
As incongruous as a BlackBerry slider phone might sound, the number of rumors indicating it’s real have been mounting. Now a new video has confirmed its existence.
BlackBerry smartphones have almost always been released in a single form factor : one thin piece with a screen up top and a full QWERTY keyboard below. While BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion has toyed with a few touchscreen and flip phones, they have never been as successful as the traditional BlackBerry form factor.
This video shows yet another attempt from RIM to mix up the BlackBerry brand. The video clearly shows a BlackBerry with a screen that slides up in portrait mode to reveal the QWERTY keyboard underneath. The video names it the BlackBerry Bold 9800, indicating this will be part of RIM's Bold line.
When the screen is slid down into position, the phone is still not much smaller than a regular BlackBerry phone. Instead of a compact form factor, the sliding screen may be used to provide a larger screen . Turning the BlackBerry into a slider allows RIM to make the screen larger and keep the full QWERTY keyboard without making the whole phone significantly larger.
Also of note in the video, the Bold 9800 is shown running the new BlackBerry OS 6, which was only recently announced by RIM .
