In the past, I have posted about Blackberry PDAs and how the next two products are rumored to be the Bold which is a traditional QWERTY device and the Thunder which is the touch screen device. My expectation had always been that the Thunder would arrive much later than the Bold due to the added complexities of the design. The latest news is that this does not appear to be the case. This article suggests that the Bold will be available in September with the Thunder in October.
This brings a new quandry. If the Thunder is truly going to ship so close to launch of the Bold then why a purchase the Bold when it launches? IMO, it makes more sense to wait until the launch of the Thunder for two reasons:
- If the Thunder is a success then it might create pricing pressure in the Bold resulting in a price reduction on the Bold.
- The touchscreen approach is so different that it either could be a huge success or total disaster. If it is the former, then it could be substantially more desirable than the Bold.
In short, my plan is to sit and watch what happens. In general you always see leaked reviews of new devices and so it is possible that we could even have a good sense of the Thunder when the Bold launches. My feeling that it is better to wait for the launch of the Thunder before purchasing a Bold and that is my current plan.