BlackBerry Curve 9350 Launch Delayed in Another Blow to RIM

Originally set to release today at Sprint, the BlackBerry Curve 9350 will not be coming to the nation's third largest carrier until October. This seems to indicate a problem with this device, which is bad news for its maker, Research In Motion.

Due to unspecified circumstances the RIM handset will not launch for another month, though Sprint did not mention a specific date. As it stands, Spring it the only U.S. carrier to commit to offering the Curve 9350, which runs the latest BlackBerry OS 7. 

This smartphone will feature a full QWERTY keyboard and a 5MP camera with flash and zoom. The handset will come with 512MB of RAM, a 2GB microSD card with support for up to 32GB and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Like its cousin, the BlackBerry Bold 9900, the Curve 9350 will offer the latest version of BlackBerry Messenger, as well as an updated social network connection. The smartphone will also offer support for NFC and BlackBerry PlayBook via BlackBerry Bridge, in addition the device will come preloaded with DataViz Docs to Go for editing Microsoft Word and other files. 

This delay could indicate an issue with the device, and comes at a hard time for an already-struggling RIM. While other BlackBerry handsets featuring BlackBerry OS 7 have hit the market weeks ago, the Curve 9350 is still sitting on the shelf. That has to be causing headaches, as the Curve seriees is traditionally one of RIM's most popular offerings.