According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, BlackBerry's long-rumored 3G touchscreen, Thunder, will roll out during the third quarter of this year. The handset is set for exclusive carriage on Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and Vodafone in other markets. Thunder could be a competitive 3G device for the Verizon Wireless against AT&T's exclusive with the expected 3G iPhone. According to previous reports about the Thunder on Boy Genius Report, the phone will have only four physical buttons and no slide-out keyboard, despite most enterprise users preferring a physical keypad to touch alone.

For more on the Thunder:
- read this report from the WSJ (sub. req.)