The BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) today officially announced the new BlackBerry Tour smartphone.

“BlackBerry continues to be the top selling smartphone brand in North America and we are proud to add this powerful new 3G world phone to our successful product portfolio,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion.

The BlackBerry Tour supports 3G EV-DO Rev. A networks in North America, as well as 3G UMTS/HSPA (2100Mhz) and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks abroad.

The BlackBerry Tour features a chic black finish with chrome highlights (112mm x 62mm x 14.2mm and 130g). It includes a full-QWERTY keyboard. In addition, the large (2.44″), bright display (480×360 resolution at 245 ppi) delivers the highest resolution available on a BB smartphone.

The Tour also offers a 3.2MP autofocus camera with flash, image stabilization, 256MB of flash memory, GPS, Documents to Go, and up to 16GB of expanded storage, among many other features you would normally expect from a BlackBerry handset.

RIM today only said the Tour is expected to hit stores this summer in North America.

However, we can confirm today that the BlackBerry Tour will launch on the Telus network in Canada on July 15, 2009. The phone will be fairly aggressively priced on Telus, at $649.99 without a term, or $249.99 with a new 3-year term.

The Tour will also launch on Verizon on July 12 (later on Sprint) for $199.99 on a new two-year activation in the U.S. The Sprint BlackBerry Tour website is now up and running here. The Verizon BlackBerry Tour site is also now live here.

The new BlackBerry Tour will not be powered by the BB OS 5.0 (but can be upgraded) that includes many enhancements such as a revamped BlackBerry Messenger that will include avatars, simplified location sharing, among other enhancements.

Just revealed today, it appears the new OS 5.0 will include SureType support for QWERTY devices, making it even easier and faster to type on a BB.