After the iPhone Lightning.. THUNDER!

Okay so the second coming of the Jesus-phone is less than 2 days away and am I excited? Yes, but just not about the 3GiP.

That's because earlier this week I caught a glimpse of THIS:

Blackberry's First Touchscreen Smartdevice - Nicknamed Thunder (or Storm). We're not sure yet.

But, while a few cell phone companies have invested lots of money attempting to reduce their iPhone "EnV" (get it?), many of them aren't quite as interesting. Even though sales figures imply that people don't mind owning an iPhone imposter (i.e. Sprint's Samsung Instinct).

This however, while not the iPhone killer that many have been looking for, will (I believe) give the Apple darling a run for it's money.

Why?

Crackberry owners love their phones. I LOVE my Curve. I LOVED my Pearl. Now combine iTunes compatibility, a haptic touchscreen done in a way that only RIM can make I suspect amazingly well and voila! You have competition baby!

Features include:

Localized Haptic Technology - when you press on the Thunder's screen, it pushes in "just" a little bit (the whole screen is sort of like a big button) and you get immediate "real" feedback - you hear an audible clickety sound, and can feel a buzz in your finger where you actually pressed on the display.

Full QWERTY and SureType entry - hold the phone in landscape mode and you can take advantage of a full-qwerty keypad. Use the phone in portrait mode and you can enter data on a SureType keyboard. You will be able to choose/change your screen/keyboard orientation at anytime.

I'm seriously looking forward to this.

The Blackberry Thunder (Storm) will hit Verizon Wireless exclusively in the 3rd quarter of '08. (Yea, I know, I know... That's like NOW.)

via Gizmodo via Blackberry Sync & BGR

Update 07/10/2008: "Nerd-fight, Nerd-fight!" There apparantly has been some back and forth on whether or not RIM's new baby will be an Apple Killer or just flat out be a failure. See Blackberry Thunder Leads To A Nerd Fight via InformationWeek.com.

Update 07/16/2008: The Thunder is rumored to actually be called the Blackberry Storm... as in Halle Berry in a tight black jumpsuit I hope.