BlackBerry revealed during its recent fiscal Q1 2014 earnings call that it's planning to introduce a new BlackBerry 7-powered smartphone in the near future, but the company didn't offer up any details on exactly what the mystery device might be. It looks like we don't have to wait for an official announcement from the company formerly known as RIM, though, as some details of the upcoming BB7 handset have been revealed by a User Agent Profile (UAProf) that's been discovered on BlackBerry's website.
The UAProf, unearthed by the folks at CrackBerry, consists mostly of random bits of code that cover details like browser version and JavaScript support. There are some juicy tidbits about the new BlackBerry 7 device buried within the UAProf, though, like the name "BlackBerry 9720." Other parts of the file show that the 9720 will be powered by BlackBerry 7.1 and will feature a screen resolution of 480x360, a QWERTY keyboard and support for GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA connectivity as well as 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi.
BlackBerry is focusing most of its efforts on BlackBerry 10 and devices like the Z10, Q10 and Q5, but the company recently said that it plans to continue pushing BlackBerry 7 in emerging markets. That's a purpose that this BlackBerry 9720 could serve, bringing a new BlackBerry smartphone that's likely to be pretty affordable to emerging markets where consumers may be interested in a BlackBerry device but are unable to afford the higher-specced and higher-priced BlackBerry 10 hardware. There's still no word on when or where this BlackBerry 9720 might hit store shelves, but at least now we've got an idea of what Thorsten and Co. have planned for their next BlackBerry 7 offering.
Via CrackBerry, BlackBerry 9720 User Agent Profile (viewable in Firefox)
