A posting over at Gizmodo via the original source of a Tmonews forum item has a leaked image of the RIM roadmap, with a new Bold model on the horizon with a touch screen in a slider casing.

There’s nothing much more to tell other than what the picture above shows, but still it’s an interesting rumour none the less.

In all practicality, we can’t really see the benefit of a touch screen in the Bold’s current housing. Unless RIM are open to crosspollination of their range, which they might very well be if the latest phone is anything to go by.

With the Curve 8900 we’ve seen the old model Curve from last year updated, to house a screen of the current BlackBerry Bolds likening.

Working on that principal and that principal alone, perhaps a screen somewhere in between the Bold and the Storm could be of use in this supposed new handset.

Seeing as it’s also designated to be housed in a slider format this could be much more of a feasible solution.

Of late we’ve seen the BlackBerrys break out of their corporate monstrosity mould, to adopt a much more consumer focussed design.

One model of phone they haven’t actually brought to market yet is a slider, so perhaps the concept isn’t as wild and unbelievable as it first appears to be.

A few years back you wouldn’t have believed RIM would have produced a candybar shaped mobile any more than you would have believed a full touch screen handset, minus a keyboard.

Even the thought of a flip phone wouldn’t have made sense to most, now look at the sales. It’s actually doing rather well.

With a product codename of ‘Pluto’ we’re guessing the rumour this model’s design isn’t so out-of-this-world after all.

BlackBerry Curve 8900 - T-Mobile

Deutsche Telekom arrived on the scene today with their BlackBerry 8900 offering, beating the shipping Curve by over a week.

Carphone Warehouse announced earlier on this week their 8900s will be in the shops on the December 20th, O2 said January 5th and T-Mobile will now be selling theirs on the 12th of December. Tadarrr!

This is despite the Carphone Warehouse telling Mobile Industry Review they were exclusively selling the handset, and then revising their statement to saying it’s the ‘Titanium’ version instead.

Earlier on this week we debunked their claim, as it’s the exact model being sold by O2 and now it appears that T-Mobile are selling the same version as well.

Coming along with unlimited access to RIM’s push email, with unlimited web browsing on T-Mobile’s web‘n’walk service.

The BlackBerry Curve will be free if signed up to a £35 a month contract, also known as their Flext 30 with a £5 email bolt-on. A tariff that has £140 worth of calls and texts, which can be made up of 700 mins, 1400 texts or a mixture of both.

O2 has still yet to make public their costings for the 8900 or any of the tariff pricing. Clearing showing the only reason they put out a press release on Monday was to trump the Carphone Warehouse announcement the following day, and T-Mobile’s today.

There isn’t a great deal more we can add to the handset they we haven’t already covered here, here or even here.

We haven’t heard so far from Vodafone or Orange, perhaps they can offer the handset this week, three hours before the phone was announced on a Thursday morning backin May.

BlackBerry Curve 8900 - titanium - Carphone Warehouse

The BlackBerry Curve got its launch today, not exclusively with the Carphone Warehouse as we were told by them nearly three weeks ago.

A press release arrived today from O2, around the same time CPW were announcing to the media their launch. Which they initially stated was an exclusive deal with Research In Motion on the new Curve 8900.

After we spoke to them, they were in puzzlement over the O2 announcement as a few weeks back they officially put in writing to us the BlackBerry 8900 was being solely sold with them. In fact, we were the first to tell them today it is also going to O2 as well.

It has now come to light the deal may have changed since we published those details many many weeks back.

Carphone Warehouse clarified all this by putting out a press release today informing the media they will now be selling the SIM free 8900, only with a different colour finish in ‘titanium’.

This is despite the O2 version of the phone looking exactly the same in every way shape or form as the CPW counterpart.

BlackBerry Curve 8900 - O2

We called to confirmed the image supplied by Carphone Warehouse was correct and the image supplied by O2 was also correct – both came back in the affirmative.

Even handsets they’re shelling out to the media and showed off at the launch today were the exact same ones as the O2 models; in fact the link on CPW website here just confirms all of it. Curiouser and Curiouser!

Just as we were writing this up T-Mobile has announced they’re having a press briefing this Thursday over the BlackBerry Curve 8900 arriving with them. What’s the betting the phone will look the same there too?

Also, just to make matters worse when we spoke to T-Mobile’s PR company they thought the Javelin and the Curve 8900 were two different handsets. D’oh!

O2 have said the pre-registration for the phones open up on the 10th of December, with pre-ordering kicking off from the 22nd on their website – with the handset arriving on the 5th January. All at a cost ranging from free to £234, on selected tariffs.

Whilst the Carphone Warehouse will beat them hands down, as the phone will be in their shops nationwide on December 20th, three weeks before O2 will have there’s. Although they haven’t offered up any pricing as yet, but we’ll keep you informed of those developments within time.

If you weren’t already aware, the Curve 8900 is their thinnest BlackBerry handset to date. It arrives with all the features you expect from them, whilst also being Quad-band with WIFI onboard.

It comes along with a 2.4-inch 480 x 360 pixel HVGA+ display coupled with a 3.2 megapixel camera, all weighing in at 110 grams and its dimensions measuring up to 109 x 60 x 13.5 mm. With a battery life of 5.5 hours talk time and 356 hours/15 days of standby.

Let’s hope the mess of who has what, what has who and when’s when is sorted out by the time they arrive.

In an exclusive deal with the Carphone Warehouse, RIM’s latest handset the BlackBerry Curve 8900 hits the stores on December 20^th.

Yes, that’s right folks you read it here correctly ‘the latest handset’. Gone are the days of the Storm this, the Storm that – the Storm has officially passed.

Now it’s time to turn our much deserved attention to the up coming arrival of the Blackberry Curve 8900, formally known as the Javelin.

The other week be brought you the ground breaking news of its arrival in der fatherland. We can now officially confirm from a spokespersons at Carphone Warehouse that it’ll be in the shops just in time for Christmas. Ideal for those last minute shoppers, saving them a trip to the petrol station at midnight.

This new Curve is set to have all the abilities of the first, only building on the technology of the Bold by including its visual experience with its screen.

We’ve been told it’s a worthy follow-up to the original, with a smaller form factor than the first outing and with WIFI now onboard.

No tariffs or pricing as yet been made available, although we’ve been told it will be around from SIM free. Wahooo! .

Keep your eyes peeled on their website for more info at – www.carphonewarehouse.com