Verizon Announces BlackBerry Curve 9310, Available July 12th

RIM may not be having the best of times, but it's still continuing to pump out handsets. Today the company announced the launch of the BlackBerry Curve 9310 in conjunction with Verizon, with the phone running BlackBerry 7.1 as well as featuring a dedicated BBM key for serious messaging addicts. Verizon and RIM are pitching the phone as a social solution, making sure to point out that Facebook and Twitter apps are front and center.

The 2.44-inch QVGA display is matched with a 3.2-megapixel camera, 512MB of RAM, an a microSD card slot for up to 32GB of storage. WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth are all onboard, and some software tweaks have been added too. VZ Navigator will give customers audible turn-by-turn navigation, while parental controls will stop teens from sexting the night away.

Verizon is offering the Curve 9310 for $99.99, although you can drop that down to $49.99 with a $50 mail-in rebate. The monthly price will be on the high side though. If you're a customer needing unlimited texting and messaging plus 300MB of data, you'll have to cough up $80 per month. Still, if it sounds like your next phone, you'll be able to pick it up on July 12th.