It seems as if the much anticipated launch of the Blackberry Pearl Flip is close at hand. Articles, rumors, unboxing videos and photos of the smartphone have started appearing on the Web, including those from the Boy Genius Report and PhoneDog.com, complete with T-Mobile packaging. Of course, the rumor that T-Mobile is going to launch the smartphone has been around for a while, its easy to assume that the launch will be sooner rather than later.

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 was announced at CTIA Fall 2008 and is the first BlackBerry with a clamshell design. T-Mobile will be the first U.S. carrier to offer the model.

A few days ago we rumored about the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 price which was suppose to be $200 with a 1-year contract, and 7 days later we have a new rumor about the cellphone.

The unusual Blackberry that comes in a flip-mode has arrived in stores at the US, at least according to BlackBerry Reporter that was able to get a photo of the action. In this case it was a red Pearl Flip 8220, but there will also be a silver version.

If you want to take a peek at the red Blacberry Pearl Flip 8220, just head over to a T-Mobile Store and ask for more information.

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With growing competition in the business sector from handsets such as Apple’s iPhone it would only make sense that RIM would then extend it’s phones elsewhere, which exactly what it is doing with the new Pearl 8220.

We had previously seen leaked imagery of the above phone but didn’t actually here much from RIM about it, regarding the US. We now know the phone’s first US carrier will be T-Mobile.

Some of the phone’s features include a Sure-type keyboard, a flip open screen (a first for RIM), a 2MP camera, and built in Wi-Fi. The 8220 won’t, however, be compaitble with the 3G network like it’s older brother, the Bold, but instead on the much slower EDGE networks.

There is no word on when we will see this phone or for how much but we will keep you posted.

Canada’s Rogers will offer you the BlackBerry Kickstart 8220 if you happen to be in Canada for a while. While there aren’t any changes in specs from what we know about the 8220, there appear to be some changes in pricing.

It appears that Rogers will charge 149CAD for it with a 3 year 35CAD per month plan. That’s unusual considering that Rogers was thinking about selling the clamshell smartphone for 99CAD. A further discount of 50CAD was to be given to students opting for a 3 year 49CAD per month plan. Who knows what’s the final price after all.