BlackBerry flip revealed, say hello to the Kickstart

Looks like the folks up in Waterloo have been busy finding new designs lately. This is what they have come up with. It is a BlackBerry flip. I never thought I would see the day. This new device, called the Kickstart, is the first BlackBerry flip phone, ever. For a first attempt, this is not looking to shabby either. The device could be released as early as the end of the year.

Well, lets see what we can learn from this image. First, it is very clearly a BlackBerry, as in not too much departure from BlackBerry designs we know today. We see the familiar and distinct RIM SureType keyboard. A good choice for a flip, where space is limited. Also, we see a trackball. A trackball makes even more sense on a flip, as it will be protected from pockets and such. From the screen, we can tell it is not running any special user interface. Definitely not the one we saw on the BlackBerry 9000 at least.

Interestingly, no model number was outed with it. It is not clear what series this BlackBerry belongs to. While the interface clues that it could be part of the 8000 series, there is no reason to believe that just because the interface is familiar it is not part of the 9000 series. While there is no evidence this is the BlackBerry 9100, there a few reasons it could be. The BlackBerry 7100 and 8100 series, were compact, SureType sporting BlackBerries. Clearly, this is a compact, SureType sporting BlackBerry. There have been no SureType BlackBerries that were not part of a *100 series. While RIM could introduce it as a new member to the 8100 series, it seems unlikely they would put this device in a candy bar family of phones.

[Via Boy Genius Report]