Touchscreen Blackberry in Q3, QWERTY looks nervous

Well call me a monkey's uncle. It looks like RIM, despite their apparent belief a that a virtual keyboard 'sucks', will launch a touchscreen model in the fall. This particular model, currently codenamed 'Thunder' (or the 9500, if a number is your thing), will abandon the Blackberry design of full or half-QWERTY keyboard in favour of a full touchscreen. The only buttons that have escaped the chop are the four button combination to control call and menu functions. It is rumored to also be a truly worldwide device, packing CDMA EV-DO Rev. C (and/or possibly 4G LTE support), and support for international use with the inclusion of GSM HSPA.

So, does this mean that Blackberry are eschewing their QWERTY roots in favour of a iPhone-eque clone? I don't think so, but it is very interesting indeed to see such a stalwart supporter of the QWERTY form-factor suddenly jump on the current touchscreen bandwagon.