Not really a rumor considering Jim Balsillie himself announced these more "consumer oriented" Blackberry devices, IMHO too little too late, with the Sidekick III just hitting stores it'll be a hard sell to find consumers willing to buy the "boring" Blackberry. It is also a pretty tough sell to get a consumer to pay the $20-$60 for the Blackberry service.
FWIW, the source of his quotes is here:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1983066,00.asp