There were rumors circulating that the BlackBerry Tour would launch on Verizon Wireless July 12th but now it is absolutely official thanks to a pre-order page found on VerizonWireless.com:

Unfortunately if you’re already a Verizon Wireless customer you can NOT pre-order the phone as Gizmodo reports:

That is pretty absurd. T-Mobile is currently REWARDING their customers by ONLY allowing existing customers to pre-order the MyTouch 3G Android Phone. Meanwhile Verizon Wireless is forcing its customers through the rat race? This makes no sense to me… and Gizmodo explained why pretty well:

Those mid-contract upgrades cost Verizon money, so on kind of a cold, reptilian level, we understand the reason for the rule. But there’s also a little thing called “not screwing your customers,” and Verizon seems to have a tough time grasping that one. The Tour will be the most desirable phone in Verizon’s lineup upon its release (and while we like the Tour okay, it’s definitely not in the same league as the Pre, iPhone, or Hero), and yet they’re keeping their contracted customers from ordering only this one device.

Any chance they’ll change this? Doubtful… but we can hope. Afterall the Tour is a phone well worth the picking price.