Ok, so we know now that the RIM road map document that was leaked in October was accurate. The 8800 looks exactly the same and has the right features and everything, just like it says. Couple that with the fact that this new camera has:
1) Treo-like keys
2) Silver color
3) A camera
EXACTLY the features of the Crimson, and looks exactly like the Crimson, compare:
The only difference is the color of some of the keys, that's it. And look at the bottom edge of the phones, both of them have a very distinctive cutout. They are the same phone, people. Call it 8300, 8800, 8830 whatever you want, but it's the same phone. And it makes total sense considering it was next up on the road map. It says "Availability Spring 2007". Spring is from March 20 to June 21. That's probably when we'll see it.
Now as far as carriers go lets think about this logically for a second. Look at this other road map slide:
It's a Quadband GSM. There are only two GSM carriers in the US, Cingular and T-Mobile. Cingular JUST released the 8800, which is just like this phone but doesn't have wi-fi or a camera. It makes absolutely no sense for Cingular to release another phone right now to compete with the 8800 that they just released. But it totally makes sense that this phone would be for T-Mobile, consider there the only carrier LEFT. What seals the deal though is this last slide:
It says "
802.11bg. Voice and data at home and on the road via Wi-Fi hotspots. Driving adoption of mobile as primary device through operator controlled UMA/GAN access."
Who is the only provider that has been testing UMA? T-Mobile.
So to summarize the conclusions:
This phone is the Crimson
It's basically an 8800 with Wi-Fi and a camera
It's coming out on T-Mobile
It should be available between March 20-June 21