But in the list of older phones compatible with this touchscreen-friendly system, two devices are conspicuously absent: BlackBerry’s own older touchscreen phones.

BlackBerry’s newest phone, the Torch, has a touchscreen and will come with the BlackBerry 6 operating system. The Torch, which also made its debut Tuesday, combines a the screen with a slide-out keyboard to entice BlackBerry’s traditional business user.

But the latest operating system is leaving the older touchscreens — the Storm and Storm 2 — behind, despite the fact that the Storm 2 came out only late last year. BlackBerry acknowledged that the new system does not work on the Storm phones.

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Asian component makers — those that make chips and touch-screens used in Apple’s devices and other similiar gadgets — say they are having a tough time meeting orders thanks in part to stronger-than-expected demand for smartphones and tablet PCs.

In recent months, Dell (DELL), Samsung, Toshiba and even Chinese battery-maker BYD have announced plans to launch tablet PCs. A slew of mobile handset makers including LG Electronics, Sony Ericsson (SNE) and Nokia (NOK) have also launched new smartphones to compete with Apple’s iPhone 4. These components are also making headway into electronic readers such as Amazon.com’s (AMZN) Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s (BKS) Nook. The new devices are creating more demand for chips, touch-screens and other types of displays.

“Due to the recent emergence of new, promising applications, such as tablet PCs, smartphones and iPad, we expect the supply condition in the NAND flash market will be tighter in the second half of this year,” said Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Ohmori.

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Here’s some of Tiernan’s commentary from Thursday:

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Palo Alto, Calif.-based Duck Duck Moose is one such company. Caroline Hu Flexer founded it with her husband, a software engineer, and a friend, a designer, a little over a year ago, after seeing how much her oldest daughter was interested in the device.

“As a mom, I was always carrying around a bagful of crayons. I thought it would be great to have something that was high quality and educational for my child,” she says.

The company decided to try to turn the idea of pop-up books into an app. The first one, Wheels on the Bus, plays the popular song while children can touch the bus on the screen to swish the wipers, open and close the door or spin the wheels. Flexer’s husband, who is a cellist, recorded the music with a pianist and a violinist, while their daughter, who was three years old at the time, recorded a gibberish track that proved to be a hit.

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And that would seem to belie claims by the company’s leadership that the term “Apple netbook” is an oxymoron. Asked during Apple’s Q4 earnings call last year if the company will ever enter the netbook market, CEO Steve Jobs said, “We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that….As we look at the NetBook category, that’s a nascent category. There’s as best as we can tell not a lot of them getting sold. You know, one of our entrants into that category, if you will, is the iPhone for browsing the Internet and doing e-mail and all the other things that a NetBook lets you do, and being connected via the cellular net wherever you are, an iPhone is a pretty good solution for that, and it fits in your pocket. But we’ll wait and see how that nascent category evolves and we’ve got some pretty interesting ideas if it does evolve.”

Certainly a kiss-off, yet one delivered with that “we could build a netbook that would blow your head off if we wanted to” caveat: We’ve got some pretty interesting ideas.

Apple COO Tim Cook was similarly dismissive of the netbook category during the company’s Q1 earnings call this year. “We’re watching [the netbook] space,” he said. “But, right now from our point of view, the products in there are principally based on hardware that’s much less powerful than we think customers want. Software technology that is not good, cramped keyboards small displays….And so, we don’t think that people are going to be pleased with those types of products. But we’ll see…it’s a category we watch. We’ve got some ideas here. But, right now we think the products there are inferior and will not provide an experience to customers that they’re happy with.”

Another harsh Apple kiss-off for the netbook category, yet like Jobs’s, it’s delivered with that “we’ve got some ideas” caveat–one that might just as easily be interpreted as “we’re going to redefine the category when we’re ready to.”

So what to make of this Commercial Times report? Like all Apple (AAPL) rumors, it could be something, could be nothing. But two things are certain: If Apple is planning to release a netbook it won’t be piece of junk. And it won’t sell it for $500, either.

[Image credit: Gizmodo]

And that would seem to belie claims by the company’s leadership that the term “Apple netbook” is an oxymoron. Asked during Apple’s Q4 earnings call last year if the company will ever enter the netbook market, CEO Steve Jobs said, “We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that….As we look at the NetBook category, that’s a nascent category. There’s as best as we can tell not a lot of them getting sold. You know, one of our entrants into that category, if you will, is the iPhone for browsing the Internet and doing e-mail and all the other things that a NetBook lets you do, and being connected via the cellular net wherever you are, an iPhone is a pretty good solution for that, and it fits in your pocket. But we’ll wait and see how that nascent category evolves and we’ve got some pretty interesting ideas if it does evolve.”

Certainly a kiss-off, yet one delivered with that “we could build a netbook that would blow your head off if we wanted to” caveat: We’ve got some pretty interesting ideas.

Apple COO Tim Cook was similarly dismissive of the netbook category during the company’s Q1 earnings call this year. “We’re watching [the netbook] space,” he said. “But, right now from our point of view, the products in there are principally based on hardware that’s much less powerful than we think customers want. Software technology that is not good, cramped keyboards small displays….And so, we don’t think that people are going to be pleased with those types of products. But we’ll see…it’s a category we watch. We’ve got some ideas here. But, right now we think the products there are inferior and will not provide an experience to customers that they’re happy with.”

Another harsh Apple kiss-off for the netbook category, yet like Jobs’s, it’s delivered with that “we’ve got some ideas” caveat–one that might just as easily be interpreted as “we’re going to redefine the category when we’re ready to.”

So what to make of this Commercial Times report? Like all Apple (AAPL) rumors, it could be something, could be nothing. But two things are certain: If Apple is planning to release a netbook it won’t be piece of junk. And it won’t sell it for $500, either.

[Image credit: Gizmodo]