First Shots of the Blackberry Thunder's Touchscreen

Crackberry has some exclusive pics of the Blackberry Thunder's touchscreen.

Looks impressive. If it works as promised, it will be an impressive phone. My only criticisms are the esthetics. The phone is, dare I say, utilitarian. The GUI is, dare I say, utilitarian. And what's with that handwritten font? I do not want to see Comic Sans on any phone! In all fairness, Apple has a similar font available on the iPhone. The SureType keyboard seems to be a smart keyboard implementation for using the touchscreen in portrait mode, although I'd like to see something like Tengo offered as an option as well.

Blackberry Thunder

Crackberry is reporting that the upcoming BlackBerry Thunder touchscreen phone is going to use a haptic keyboard. This should be an awesome (and likely spendy) phone when it comes out.

I'm probably in the minority when I say that I don't really see this phone as "true" competition for the iPhone. To me, they're both in different spaces, servicing somewhat different needs.

While I am rooting for Android also, there is something to be said about products from companies that control both the hardware and the software platform. That's why I think that RIM and Apple are going to be the players offering the most compelling products in the smartphone space.

You can slap a lot of lipstick on Windows Mobile and release a nice phone like the Sony Xperia, Samsung Instinct or HTC Diamond, but in the end, you're still stuck with an OS that sees phone functionality as an afterthought.

My HTC Excalibur (aka T-Mobile Dash) is a prime example - it has a great form factor with more than decent build quality, but you can always count on the OS to ruin the overall experience.