THE NEW BLACKBERRY THUNDER SET TO CHALLENGE THE iPHONE

Motion Ltd., tha creators of the BlackBerry e mail mobile phone, will start selling a model called the Verizon Blackberry Thunder it will have a touch screen and goes on sale in the third quarter, Verizon Blackberry Thunder will be taking on Apple Inc.'s iPhone, the Wall Street Journal said.

Verizon Wireless will have exclusive rights to sell the handset in the U.S., the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The device, known as the Verizon Blackberry Thunder , will run on wireless networks globally, the Journal said.

Since the iPhone's debut last June, Apple has seized the No. 2 spot in the U.S. market for cell phones with Internet functions, challenging BlackBerry's lead. Research In Motion is updating its designs to expand beyond corporate users and fend off a new faster iPhone that may emerge next month, said Pablo Perez- Fernandez, a Global Crown Capital analyst in San Francisco.Toys