While the original BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Series had an incredible run, with only some minor tweaks the phone lasted well over three years with essentially no changes, it is time for this classic phone series to be retired and a new wave of BlackBerry Pearls to hit the market.

At its recent WES conference RIM unveiled the all new Pearl 3G.  This new device which is being rumored as the Pearl 9100 becomes the very first RIM device with 802.11n WiFi support.  The new Pearl 3G also features a 3.2 megapixel camera, 256MB of internal storage with microSD expansion up to 32GB, GPS, triband HSDPA with quadband GSM / EDGE, and a 360 x 400 display. 

RIM is also making this new device available in “several lustrous colors” and two different keypad configurations a numeric 14 key and more traditional SurePress 20-key.  However, there is no indication that the rumored QWERTY version will actually make it to retail or that the company intends for users to be able to swap modules themselves. 

Consumers can expect the phone to launch with various carriers in May.  Since the devices have both AWS and 850 / 1900MHz 3G versions I would expect to see this mobile device launched on the AT&T and T-Mobile networks.

Since the original BlackBerry Pearl was so popular and lasted on the market virtually unchanged I would expect much of the same from RIM and their new Pearl 3G.  After seeing what the different specs were going to be for these new devices I think it is safe to predict that the new Pearl 3G will be just as successful as its predecessor if not more so.  Being a part of the 3G network will be a big boost to this already fantastic mobile device.