A few days ago the employment section of BlackBerry-maker's Research In Motion site ran the following job listing:

"The successful candidate will be responsible defining, selecting, prototyping, debugging and verification of camera solution for Blackberry devices. He/she will have extensive knowledge of CCD and CMOS image sensor in mobile application. He/she will define test hardware, develop test software, and write up verification plans and reports. He/she will have experience in testing/verifying image quality and performance. The candidate must be self-starter and be very comfortable interfacing regularly with other engineering groups (hardware, software, marketing, factory, component qualification, etc..) and with external electronic components suppliers."

That led some of us to believe that a BlackBerry with a camera was several months if not more, away. You don't hire people for what sounds like formative, testing research for a product that is several weeks away from launch.

But with this week's news and pix of the camera-enabled BlackBerry 8100, a different picture is emerging.

Here's what we think is going on.

I have heard from a trusted source that although the Cingular and T-Mobile BlackBerry 8100 models are ready, there are some notable development delays in the Verizon 8100s. I hear that model is several months away.

I believe that this position will be involved working with Verizon Wireless on their BlackBerry 8100.

But whatever the vision here, I just checked this a.m. The position has been filled.