We've received a few tips now from BlackBerry Bold 9900 owners who have seen their devices refuse to power on, effectively bricking the smartphones. Many affected users have had to have their phones completely replaced to resolve the issue as traditional reset options don't necessarily resolve it. In a statement to CNBC tonight, a RIM spokeswoman confirmed that the issue is real, but that RIM is working on a fix:

It does look like the issue might be a little more widespread than RIM is letting on, as CrackBerry's forums are awash with threads reporting the issue and attempting to troubleshoot a fix. The issue is apparently not limited to just the 9900, but also can affect its CDMA variant, the BlackBerry Bold 9930. The root of the issue likely lies somewhere within the BlackBerry OS 7 operating system rather than with the hardware itself, often occurring spontaneously after simply charging the phone.