BlackBerry may not be quite done with the older BlackBerry 7 operating system. According to a number of images obtained by the Thai BlackBerry Club, the manufacturer will release the BlackBerry 9720 powered by BlackBerry OS 7.1. A UAProf (User-Agent Profile) file found on BlackBerry’s servers gives further credence to the leak.
The move should not come as a surprise. While still known as Research In Motion, the company had indicated that there would be a period of time when BlackBerry 10 devices would co-exist with BlackBerry 7 ones.
It’s unlikely that we will see the BlackBerry 9720 in North America. Based on details so far, this is clearly a device intended for emerging markets. It looks set to come with a display offering a resolution of 480 by 360 pixels, about 100MB of internal storage and support for 3G and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity. It is expected to be about the same size as the BlackBerry Bold 9900.
It remains to be seen how well new BlackBerry 7 devices will sell now that BlackBerry 10 devices are available in an increasing number of markets. If the last quarter was any indication, BlackBerry 7 devices may continue to outsell their newer counterparts for a while yet.
There is no word yet on availability and pricing.
Sources : Thai BlackBerry Club // CNET // BlackBerry