The Competition: BlackBerry Tour has Landed

The BlackBerry Tour 9630 has landed, and our sibling site, CrackBerry.com has been all over it like, well, Kevin on a new BlackBerry. Check out their full BlackBerry Tour review and new BlackBerry Tour Forums for all the details.

It's not a touchscreen like the BlackBerry Storm (or Storm 2 will be), and it's not on GSM networks like the Bold or Curve, but it sounds like it mixes elements of all those devices to maybe help the big CDMA carriers keep the BlackBerry faithful happy and their eyes away from the iPhone and AT&T for a few more months at least.

If you're on Verizon and love hardware keyboards, it's likely a no-brainer upgrade. If you're on Sprint, you could always get both the latest Palm and BlackBerry and go on a Pre-Tour -- last smartphone standing!

Update: Commenters remind us that the BlackBerry Tour doesn't have Wi-Fi (jeers, Verizon!) and, as we mentioned a couple posts ago, Verizon is continuing their fau

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.