BlackBerry Thunder 9500 has just appeared in the first live images, which show the large touchscreen display of the device as well as its two QWERTY keyboards. You probably already know that Thunder is the only touchscreen smartphone that Research in Motion has developed until now, without officially presenting it yet.

The first live images with the new BlackBerry were spotted on CrackBerry and confirm the fact that the handset will be a direct competitor to Apple's iPhone 3G, launched five days ago on 23 global markets.

The Thunder tries to compensate for the lack of a physical keyboard with two virtual on-screen ones. When in portrait mode, the smartphone can display a SureType QWERTY keypad, while in landscape mode you'll get a full QWERTY one. But the best part is that the touchscreen display of the new BlackBerry features tactile feedback, hence you will feel the virtual keyboards as if they were real. Of course, the two new images show only a prototype of Thunder, so we expect those keys to look better on the real device when it gets to be launched.

Besides the wide touchscreen display (said to have a 360 x 480 pixel resolution), BlackBerry Thunder 9500 is said to also bring a new BlackBerry 4.7 OS, GPS, 3G connectivity, a large built-in memory and a WebKit-based browser to rival iPhone 3G's Safari browser. Moreover, lots of other multimedia and business-oriented features will probably be packed in the new BlackBerry, to make it the touchscreen version of the Bold 9000 smartphone.

RIM did not give any details about the new Thunder, but rumors say the touchscreen handset will be released before the year's end, both in the US (via Verizon) and in Europe (via Vodafone). Of course, pricing is another aspect we know nothing of, but the Thunder will be quite expensive, that's for sure. Anyway, we look forward to hearing more about the new smartphone.