The Wall Street Journal, for all intents and purposes, is a pretty respectable publication so when they speak out about something, everyone is bound to turn their ears towards them. We’ve heard a few inklings about the first touchscreen phone to come out of the Research in Motion camp, but we have yet to hear anything about a firm launch date surrounding the upcoming BlackBerry Thunder. The crew at the WSJ, however, seem to have unearthed a very juicy detail.

It turns out that the BlackBerry Thunder 9500, which will target the more business-minded in the iPhone market, is set to launch with Verizon Wireless in the United States some time in the third quarter of this year. This means that we will be unleashing the Thunder unto the masses by September at the latest. This is right around the same time that we expect to see the BlackBerry Bold 9000 as well.

The pre-September launch date isn’t quite as soon as the predicted June unveiling of the 3G iPhone, but it looks like Research in Motion is pretty serious about snatching up even more market share beyond “just” the corporate environment.