Sprint’s ‘08-’09 roadmap: BlackBerry 8350i, Motorola i576, Motorola i950, and a lot more!
What would the world do without BGR? Well, you’d probably have a lot less broken AVAYA phones, less screaming, and just all around happier wireless executives. Oh well. We just got our hands on Sprint’s ‘08-’09 roadmap, and there are definitely some goodies in here if you are a current Sprint subscriber. First up is the BlackBerry 8350i. That’s right Nextel-lovers, you’ve got a new phone to play with coming soon! Contrary to other online images of the device, it appears this BlackBerry does not have the hideous external antenna. The BlackBerry 8350i will have Wi-Fi, a 2 megapixel camera, GPS, and run OS 4.6 out of the box! Look for a Q4 release on that bad boy. For the rest of the goods including more lack-luster phones than you can count, hit the jump folks!
As you can see, the BlackBerry 8350i is based on the Curve (obviously), but you’ve got to love that internal antenna now. Wi-Fi and GPS make this the dream Berry for Nextel users. Also, you’ll be able to grab a camera-less version of the 8350i so you can play nice in restricted areas. Holla!
Let’s break down the roadmap a bit:
- The first that looks to be coming out is the Motorola i950
- Launching in early Q4, there’s the Motorola i576 and the Motorola i776
- In mid-to-late Q4 there’s the BlackBerry 8350i
- Coming up around Jan-Feb, we’ve got the Motorola “Monolith” which is some sort of entry-level SureType-type device, what looks to be a Motorola V8-type phone, and a Sanyo iDEN/GSM handset
- Later on in Q2, there’s a Samsung music slider phone, a military-spec “Immersion” phone by Motorola, and the Sanyo Pro410.
Here are the super-large handset images, followed by a couple more slides…
Tags: 8350i, BlackBerry, i576, i776, i950, immersion, monolith, Motorola, Nextel, sanyo pro410, Sprint
Diamond release date is slated for 9/2 with possible delay back to 9/14. Touch Pro slated for 10/19.
As for the “papa bear” curve comments, this curve is 18 months beyond the initial GSM launch, so it stands to reason that they could incorporate some goodies that they couldn’t initially. Plus, it needed WiFi in order to be relevant, since data speed on iDen is like what EVERY other carrier had in 2000. Can you imagine downloading daily email on
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a 14.4 connection?
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The 8350i is going to be the biggest POS without an external antenna. There’s no way it’s going to work on iDen well without it. I agree it looks good, but it’s not going to work for crap. I would get it in a second if it was a hybrid between iden and cdma, but as we all know, Sprint isn’t smart enough to work on that.
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Thanks guys for all of the feedback! I will take a look!
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Thanks for the article!!! i’ve been waiting for Sprint/Nextel to come out with a new iDEN bberry so finally get to retire my well used 7100i.
Keep us posted BGR!!!!!
F#ck all the haters, you’ll have the Bold, Javelin, Kickstart coming out so don’t sweat the technique for those that still depend on Direct Connect for eveyday use!!!!
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Why does the omision of an antenna make the phone a POS? Also the purpose of the antenna is also functional. It makes the phone easier to grab and pull from your belt clip. Also easier to handle if you are working with gloves on. Its more or less a handle. I recently switched to a qchat device from an i870 and its a real hassle trying to get the device out of the belt clip. You don’t have the antenna for leverage.
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where is the i950? i cant see it..
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Huskyfan, you can also turn the speaker off on ptt calls too.
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For people that don’t use the DC all day long, yes, the 8350 may seem like a POS. But for those that use the DC all day, and need email, the 8350 is what we’ve been waiting for. The 7520 is durable, but a brick, screen is way outdated. The 7100i is nice, but I hate the suretype keyboard, love the DC button on the side. But have been waiting to get rid of the scroll wheel, hooray for trackball finally. For corporate users on a BES, this is a welcome device so bugger off all you haters. Stay on your BIS, and leave the Nextel/BES users to enjoy this final moment of sunshine.
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Where are the Palm devices?
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I have been waiting for Nextel to have another blackberry device with the chirp. Thats the best news ive heard all day.
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Because its for the Nextel side, thats why there is no mention of the HTC phones
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This is not a Iden NDC roadmap. this looks like iden/cdma roadmap. first off the so called motorola i950 is actualy the v950 and it is a cdma phone with direct connect through qchat. and the sanyo is definitely a cdma. only motorola and blackberry can make iden phones. finally anyone noteice that over half those phones are already out. and what the hell where is the i876 or the i877 the all the other iden carriers already have out.
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I hope the i950 is an upgraded version of the i930 I love that phone
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The new plans do you moron do your homework before bashing things
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“does not have the hideous external antenna. ”
You want a phone that works or looks cool? Pick ONE.
I’ll take the antenna any day. External antennas are far better at performing than the internal ones.
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someone pleae blow up that image of the road map. You can’t see anything its to small.
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Uh they do have unlimited M2M. You are silly
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Will sprint have the new blackberry curve with the direct connect if so when. I think Sprint/nextel need another Smartphone or something on the same style like the i930/i920 but something that is bluetooth compatiable without the adapter.
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Actually, the “10,000″ minute rate plan you are refering to, is old news. With that “10,000″ minutes you got 1,000 anytime minutes, 4,500 night time minutes and 4,500 weekend minutes. Hardly anything to call extraordinary by todays standards.
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Basiclly and upgraded version of the i930 at least thats what i’m hoping for. I bought that phone for $350.00 with no bluetooth and no group connect that sucked but the phone looked sweeeeet.
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iDEN? c’mon! They should get rid of that network. Even with their WiMax deployment, the odds are against Sprint/Nextel/Clearwire Consortium’s success.
Their churn rate is out of the roof, they desperately need something more than a few phones.
Sorry if this seemed a little troll-y!
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For those that want to see a larger pic of the Sprint’s ‘08-’09 roadmap, right click the pic and save to your desktop, then open with windows picture and fax viewer (or your photo program of choice) and you will see the actual size and resolution of the pic and all the details !!!
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I have no option….Nextel is the only one that works in all americas, and I do travel around these continents almost weekly… international reates are way to expensive comparing to PTT solution….
So, good news!! Now I can have only one phone to do at all!!! no more need of a BB and a I335!!
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Nextel does have that. The entire time you had Nextel, did you not ever use the DC privacy feature? I get so tired of people who say this when all you have to do is mute the speaker.
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