BlackBerry Rolls Out New Touch Phones

Research in Motion rolled out three long-delayed new BlackBerry devices today that it hopes will stem its slide toward irrelevancy. All three devices run on the BlackBerry 7 OS, and all sport touch screens. The flashiest offering may be the Torch 9850/9860, RIM’s first all-touch screen BlackBerry, but there’s also the Torch 9810, which features a slide-out keyboard, and the Bold 9900 Series, which is the slimmest phone yet to boast BlackBerry’s trademark keyboard, ZDNET reports.

But analysts are skeptical the new phones will help BlackBerry get its mojo back, they tell the Wall Street Journal. The phones had been delayed, keeping them out of some carriers’ back-to-school programs, and they don’t feature RIM’s newly-acquired and theoretically superior QNX operating system, which will hit stores next year. Analysts think customers may wait. “It helps a little to have these products out,” one analyst says. “The bigger question is, does it matter in the interim before QNX arrives?” (More Research In Motion stories.)