RIM will launch its latest BlackBerry, the 9000, early next week, claims American blog site The Boy Genius Report.

The announcement, apparently "100% confirmed", will take place on 12 May, the day previous to the Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) 2008 Florida event.

The report suggests that RIM big boss Mike Lazaridis will personally debut the device in a Steve Jobs-esque presentation.

The retail launch of the new device, that has been extensively leaked, it thought not to be until later in the summer so as not to clash with the launch of the rival 3G iPhone, said to be due in June.

The 9000 is the first HSDPA BlackBerry to offer GPS and Wi-Fi and runs an updated and improved version of the BlackBerry operating system, although a cheaper GPRS version has also been mooted as possible.

>> Link - RIM at WES 2008
>> News - BlackBerry 9000 leaked
>> Via - BGR