First-order effects

• RIM's touchscreen-first BlackBerry is confirmed as real hardware, not rumor — and the photo shows it keeps the traditional convenience keys and most physical buttons, signaling a hybrid design aimed at reassuring keyboard loyalists rather than replacing them.
• Leak-driven coverage effectively front-runs Verizon's marketing window, letting enthusiasts and enterprise buyers form opinions on the Thunder before RIM controls the narrative.

Second-order effects

• Competing carriers and rivals like Apple and Palm face pressure to counter a full-touch BlackBerry that hedges with physical keys, forcing them to sharpen their own hybrid-versus-slate positioning.
• The leak ecosystem itself becomes a strategic channel: blogs like BGR and CrackBerry gain enough sourcing clout that carriers' internal systems become de facto announcement venues, as later seen when the Thunder surfaced in Verizon's own inventory.

Third-order effects

• If the pattern holds, pre-launch leaks shift from embarrassment to standard practice in mobile — vendors quietly seed devices through enthusiast channels to test reception while keeping formal control of launch timing.
• The Thunder's keep-the-buttons compromise foreshadows the industry's core tension of the touchscreen era: how far legacy input paradigms survive as slates take over, a question that would define BlackBerry's subsequent platform pivots.