Published in Mobiles

Niagara is 9630 World Edition

by on02 March 2009

Image

BlackBerry OS 5.0 said to be part of plan

As we told you previously, RIM is busy developing a new BlackBerry under the codename Niagara, which is said to kind of a cross between a Bold and a Curve. We recently speculated about the model number and it would appear is that it will be the 9630 World Edition. (Or at least the Verizon version will be the 9630.)

The latest that we know about the 9630 is that while it will be a “World Edition” phone, the final production version has dropped the Wi-Fi option. Some pre-production models and samples did have Wi-Fi on them and the phone could support it, so we are being told it is a support and cost cutting measure. The 9630 will feature support for CDMA 1x, EVDO Rev A, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and UMTS (2100MHz only).

While the pre-production versions of the phone have had version 4.7.1 of the BlackBerry OS on them, from our understanding it is now likely that the final version of the OS will be bumped up to version 5.0 to coincide with the release of BES version 5.0. Of course, if the launch date is bumped up then this could change.

One interesting thing about the decision to use OS version 4.7.1 in the prototypes is that from our understanding (which has been confirmed by other sources, as well) to take full advantage of the upcoming BlackBerry Applications Center, you will need to have version 4.7 or higher on your BlackBerry.

This does mean that either another upgrade is being planned for some models that are not that old or those that just got to 4.5 may not, in fact, get to 4.7. Just some food for thought.
Last modified on 02 March 2009
Rate this item
(0 votes)