The photo shows the phone running some variation of the PlayBook’s OS, though the coloring and icons are somewhat different. According to the source the photo was of a ‘dummy’ model and so the OS in the screen is likely just a static image.

The phone has some similarities in design to the RIM Porsche Designed P9981. It is still unclear whether or not this is a scam or the real deal. The website BGR also speaks up on the Verge story and claims they have a source saying the this a real BBX handset, and that the original Playbook-looking model, the so-called Colt, was scrapped in favor of the London. According to the source the London might not be ready until the 3^rd quarter of 2012.

For now it’s best to take these reports with a grain of salt. Obviously Blackberry has not made any official comments regarding the supposed leak. Blackberry isn’t the king of smartphones like it was just a few short years ago, but I have to admit that the London is an interesting looking device at the very least.

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As you may recall, the device codenamed the BlackBerry Colt is going to the first smartphone from the Canadian company to be powered by a QNX-based operating system. They’re still working out all sorts of kinks, but sales are slumping on current smartphones. More specifically, the BlackBerry 7 launch has been anything but stellar. The numbers are lower than expected and this could be mostly because all the RIM fans would rather wait it out to get the QNX-based Colt instead.

However, they could be very disappointed when the Colt eventually appears. It turns out that “the integration of BES/BIS email/calendar is proving difficult,” wrote Peter Misek, an analyst from Jefferies & Company. “We think a QNX phone without these would be a disaster,” but this is sounding more and more likely with each passing day. No support of BlackBerry Enterprise Server would be huge, rendering the phone virtually unusuable by many corporate customers. And corporate/enterprise is RIM’s bread and butter.

I’m Canadian, so I’m trying to remain optimistic about Canada’s only real player in the smartphone world, but my optimism is waning and fast.

The post BlackBerry Colt with QNX being rushed to market without BES appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

An obvious trend that has emerged in the last few years is that people like smartphones with giant touchscreens and they’re getting less interested in having physical keyboards. While e-mail remains at the heart of the BlackBerry business, RIM recognizes that touchscreens are the present and the future. And that’s why the upcoming QNX-powered Colt superphone will be all touchscreen.

At least, that’s what the rumors are leading us to believe. Apparently, the BlackBerry Colt will be RIM’s equivalent to the emerging Android superphones with touchscreens of four inches or bigger. Maybe. At least we’re hearing that the Colt will rock a display that’s “possibly” bigger than 3.7-inches. Unlike the current Storm and Torch, the BlackBerry Colt sounds like it’ll do away with the trackpad too.

Naturally, the QNX operating system — which currently runs the PlayBook tablet — will be the real star here and that’s possibly why many RIM fans are holding off on BB7 devices. Oddly though, the Colt is rumored to have just a single core 1GHz processor. Considering that the BlackBerry superphone won’t launch until Q1 2012, that puts it in a similar release window as NVIDIA Tegra 3 “Kal-El”… which is a quad core mobile processor. Much like the PlayBook, will the Colt be a matter of too little, too late, missed the boat and doesn’t even have a paddle?

The post BlackBerry Colt superphone with QNX ditches the physical keyboard, trackpad appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Set for release in the first quarter of next year, the phone itself isn’t exactly a huge departure from the Curves, Tours, and Bolds we’ve seeing for some time. You still get a hardware QWERTY keyboard and an optical trackpad, but it’s the miniaturized version of the PlayBook’s OS that is the real star. The phone version is pretty much the same, only smaller… which is kind of the reverse of what Apple did with iOS for the iPad.

Since RIM is apparently having so much trouble getting the BES code to support QNX, it’s quite possible that the Canadian company is creating a QNX-specific BES. In the meantime, though, the BlackBerry Colt may not support BES at all. Does this make it dead on arrival? Maybe, maybe not. You can use Microsoft ActiveSync out of the box though.

So, where do you stand? Are you going to grab something from the BlackBerry 7 line or are you going to wait out for some QNX-based first-gen goodness next year?

The post RIM BlackBerry Colt first smartphone with QNX-based OS in 2012 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.