BlackBerry Tour: Nothing Special

So, it’s been a whole week since the new BlackBerry Tour 9630 launched in the US. Is it a hit? What do you think? Sales have been slow to take off needless to say, partly because of the oversaturation in the smartphone market this summer. New devices are coming out left, right, and center. Interestingly RIM has shown their true QWERTY side by launching every single device, after the launch of the BlackBerry Storm last year as a full keyboard smartphone.

This in an era where most manufacturers are desperately moving over to touch screen? Maybe BlackBerry is trying to hold on to their marketshare (with a little bit of prayer too) and with a trackball and full keyboard in tact. In this touchscreen-powered era, wherein almost all the high end smartphones, right from the iPhone 3GS, Nokia N97, Samsung Star 3G, Palm Pre, and the likes are coming out with bigger and better touchscreen interface and camera clarity, Blackberry has decided to resort to their good old track and ball with QWERTY keyboard design.

One thing is for sure, they’re definitely not going to impress customers without the much needed WiFi and a powerful 5mega pixel camera and other high end features, though the Tour will feature a good blend of the goodness of Blackberry Bold and the Curve 8900. But, it may not be enough to drive up the sales stats in the current smartphone market, which is literally flooded with the best of touchscreen powered high end smartphones.

The speculators are also considering this as an attempt to target all segments of the smartphone market with a mix and match of touch screen and full keyboard devices, but what remains unanswered is the fact whether Tour will be a even bigger disappointment than the Blackberry Storm!