The Wall Street Journal is reporting that its sources are confirming earlier leaks about the upcoming BlackBerry Thunder, the first BlackBerry to come with a touchscreen. As with earlier reports, the BlackBerry Thunder or 9500 is expected to be a Verizon exclusive in the United States and a Vodafone exclusive for the rest of the world.
The Wall Street Journal does not confirm that the BlackBerry Thunder will not come with a QWERTY keyboard but does suggest that it could come with 3G connectivity for the two networks. With Verizon using CDMA and Vodafone using GSM, this would mean that the Thunder would support CDMA/EV-DO/GSM/GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA connectivity. It could also support LTE, an upcoming 4G technology, giving it impressive versatility.
RIM is expected to unveil the BlackBerry Thunder in the third quarter.