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RIM is apparently looking to take ridiculous smartphone names to a
whole new level. And while it won't be the sort of ridiculousness best
embodied by the Sprint Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch (just try saying that out loud ten times in a row), that doesn't make this any less ridiculous. RIM has so far been famous for its name+four digit number model for naming devices. The name (sort of) signifies the class of device, and the digits are the actual model denomination. Fair enough, though quite convoluted for my taste. But now RIM's running out of digits – see, four isn't enough anymore, as the company has already reached the 9900s. What do do next? Well, obviously, add another digit. Hence, the BlackBerry Torch 10000. Don't laugh, for this may become an actual product in 2012. At this point I'm hoping RIM simply won't be around long enough to launch the BlackBerry Whatever 143580. Anyway, the new name comes courtesy of Asurion, which is a company dealing with phone insurance. The Torch 10000 was spotted in a list of current and past AT&T smartphones ripe for being insured. So whenever it launches, the Torch 10000 may make it to AT&T. Because it has such a round model number, you can probably expect the Torch 10000 to be some kind of a flagship device, perhaps sporting a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and 8 MP camera, all in a very thin shell. Since the Torch line now comprises both touch-only as well as touch+sliding QWERTY units, it's unclear what form factor the 10000 will have. But it will almost certainly run BlackBerry OS 10, which will be the next major version of the OS (based on QNX, which is currently powering RIM's PlayBook tablet). As for when you'll be able to buy the BlackBerry 10000, the third quarter of next year seems most likely at the moment. So there's still a hefty amount of waiting to do if for some reason you crave that extra digit. | |
