According to reports, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) and AT&T intend co-hosting an event in New York on August 3, to launch the new BlackBerry ‘Slider’ smartphone, with a slide out keyboard.

Invitations for the event have reportedly been already sent to people in the media.

Talking about the forthcoming BlackBerry handset, Tavis McCourt, an analyst with Nashville, Tennessee-based Morgan Keegan & Co, said: “I would suspect this would be the new BlackBerry 9800, a touch-screen slider phone. It was well known it was with AT&T and they’d said they’d have two devices later in their fiscal second quarter.”

Though there was no official confirmation about the proceedings at the event, with both RIM and AT&T spokespersons refusing to comment, RIM’s co-CEO Jim Balsillie had told analysts last month that the company intends introducing two new handsets around the end of the quarter that runs through August and the beginning of the next quarter.

As per an IntoMobile report, the key features of the new BlackBerry will include an HVGA touchscreen; 512 MB of RAM; 4GB of on-board storage; GPS; OS 6; physical keyboard; 3G; optical trackpad; and Wi-Fi b/g/n.

With RIM having, thus far, struggled in the creation of a touch-screen device that can match the capabilities of the Apple iPhone, McCourt is of the opinion that the forthcoming BlackBerry handset may help RIM prove its critics wrong!