The BlackBerry smartphone lineup of the Waterloo, Ontario-based Research in Motion (RIM) will soon have a new addition - the BlackBerry Tour!

RIM's Tuesday announcement about launching the new BlackBerry Tour this summer is aimed at winning market share among executives as well as mainstream consumers. The new smartphone falls in a category between RIM's BlackBerry Bold for high-end corporate users, and its BlackBerry Curve that is extremely popular with middle-of-the-road consumers.

Talking about the soon-to-be-launched smartphone in a Reuters' interview, RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie said that the smartphone will be launched with Verizon and Sprint in the US, and Telus and BCE's Bell unit in Canada.

Noting that BlackBerry Tour will give Verizon and Sprint an updated contender against the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Curve 8900 - which are available through AT&T and T-Mobile - IDC's senior research analyst Ryan Reith, said: "Many current Verizon and Sprint BlackBerry clients wanted a device like the Bold, which has a better operating system than the old global phone. The Tour gives RIM the opportunity to market a phone to those customers."

Being touted as a "world phone," the BalckBerryTour - which will have BlackBerry App World access - boasts of GPS, a 3.2 megapixel photo and video camera, media player, and a host of other multimedia features similar to those in the BlackBerry Curve and Pearl.