Whilst I am a Monocle fan as well, I think this pairing has been running a long while and the disappointing thing is that it means Monocle never feature anything Apple related or Iphone related.
For some that might be a breath of fresh air, but surely it is hard to be a design-dependant magazine and ignore Apple?

how is this in any way a ‘team up?’ putting your magazine’s logo on a pre-existing product in a transparent effort to increase nothing but cachet makes both brands look unimaginative and damage the integrity of design as a functional art. and calling a project that probably took 5 hours to draw a ‘limited edition of 100′ is only further insult added to aforementioned injury. so-called ‘design-centrics’ need to do much more than logo-slapping and leather-strapping to deserve the self-annointment. no?

@stefan
To me this Blackberry x Monocle team up is a shift in how we look at collaborative products. Since Monocle is a content brand more than a design-centric outfit, I think the goal here was the convergence of content with hardware over the ever-so-popular aesthetic mashup. The cell phone has become such a ubiquitous item for world travelers, I think it’s cool having the really awesome Monocle 25/25 travel guides at your finger tips. I agree, the design could have really benefited from a little jazzing up, but I appreciate the novel approach.

Shameless Plug: I covered this concept on my site as well: http://thecarbonado.com/blog/2009/12/05/monocle-x-blackberry-9700/