BlackBerry 9630 is the Niagara, Verizon World Edition?

So… we’ve just got word from a really trusted source, dropping bombs all around on the BlackBerry “Niagara”. First off, the model number we’re told is the BlackBerry 9630, not 8930 or 9030, or anything like that. Second, the phone will definitely be a Verizon World Edition with support for CDMA 1x, EV-DO Rev. A, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and UMTS, though we’d bet the UMTS band is going to be 2100MHz only. The last of the big news won’t surprise any Verizon-haters, but this bad beast is not going to have Wi-Fi. Oh man, they never learn, do they? To recap everything for you slow pokes:

• The OS actually we’re told is 4.7.1 (but possibly, possibly, be OS 5.0 depending on launch date).
• No Wi-Fi.
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support along with WCDMA support (bands not specified, but most likely 2100MHz).
• CDMA 1x/EV-DO Rev. A device.
• Release date unknown, but we’d say May/June if we had to bet.
• 3.2 megapixel camera (though we heard a rumor there might be a camera-less version, but that’s unconfirmed).
• The web browser supports JavaScript 1.6 (not huge news, but at least the browser is slowly improving).

Now how many of you are going to buy one of these things when they are released? We think a whole lot of people are.

Tags: 4.7.1, 9630, AT&T, BlackBerry, Camera, EDGE, EV-DO, GPRS, GSM, niagara, RIM, UMTS, Verizon, WCDMA, Wi-Fi, world edition

Jonathan S. Geller