BlackBerry Cool

The new AT&T has a new lease on life, right? As an eternal optimist, I’d like to think that they would take the opportunity to put some solid work on that clean slate they paid billions of dollars for and make future exciting handset rollouts a success… I’m guessing that the 8800 rollout will go on schedule and we’ll all be feeling the joy shortly after the 21st. Whether or not the 8800 will be a homerun, though, is up for discussion. As a Pearl user, I don’t find all that much about the 8800 to be compelling beyond the integrated GPS. Personally, I’ll be waiting to see whether Crimson or the iPhone drops first… whomever wins that race gets my hard(ly) earned dollars.

-Stac

My prediction is this launch is going to be as much of a flop as previous devices, and it’s kind of ironic you posted this question here, because I posted the same question on Pinstack to see what people would think, and everyone has the same outlook-FLOP.

As you mentioned, Cingular has a proven track record of royally screwing up launches, and it looks as if this launch is not going to be any different.

Yes, they actually did do a press release this time about the 21st. BUT. Numerous people (including myself) have called their local Cingular stores to confirm this, and no two stores have the correct answer, some stating as long as the 4th quarter of 2007.

This just proves that Cingular has no idea what is going on (whether or not they are part of the “new AT&T) when it comes to a device launch, unless it happens to be a BlackJack or an iPhone.

IMO, history speaks for itself. Cingular is going to screw this up yet again.

If by chance they don’t, I will be HIGHLY surprised.

My prediction that the actual device does well. For the corporate clients this wil be the device to upgrade to. In the long term RIM will see good profits generated by the device but right at launch I dont see it as having the same amount of “buzz” around it at launch.

The consumer market jumped on the Pearl becuase it was the first of its kind. There spending habbits are based on more surface level buying criteria (ie does it look cool? Can i text message to my friends good?). The pearl was the first ever blackberry device where I sold more than 50 units in one month just to average users, teenagers soccer moms. For the location and store I am in that is pretty huge. I won a prize for selling the most pearls in one time period to non corp. clients in BC.

The clients that RIM is focusing on in this device are people who prob. have a blackberry 8700 or 7290 and just need an upgrade. Will I have lines coming out of my store like the Pearl or when the iPHONE comes out? Meh most likely not. They will trickle in over the next few months and quietly grab the 8800.

Overall the 8800 will do brilliantly in the longrun but i see it as not a “must have product” but a device that will be a practicle step up from older models and therefore not sell as many units right away.

I think Cingular will do just fine releasing the device. I’ve noticed that everyone likes to r their dislike because they think that the world should bend down on their knees and kiss their feet. Man you guys are so critical! I’ll bet the Internet has a lot do do with it … It got everyone that way partly from so much false information and more demand on marketing details.

I can just see a client yelling and screaming because the awesome job I did on implementing their million dollar ERP system is a month behind. Who cares you spent a year developing and implementing, you were a month behind schedule!!! Thank god my business clients don’t act and think list that.

My 2 cents…Enjoy

NSimpson,

I agree that the device will be a good selling and very popular device.

But the question is will Cingular screw up this launch like they have in the past?

You know: Stores not knowing when/if they will get it, trucks being delayed, shipments being held in back rooms, etc.

Who can remember the Pearl launch?
“We have it!!!”
“We don’t!!!”
“It’s on the trucks!!!”
“It’s still in the warehouse!!!”
“They have it, look, its in the window” and then walk into the store and the clerks go “huh, what’s a pearl?”.
“We won’t have it for 2 weeks”
“We will have it this afternoon”
Etc.

Cingular communicates worse than the NSA/CIA and FBI.

Well I deal more on the Rogers end of things.

What I can say is that really depends on what stores you go to and how well informed they are. Usually you want to deal with someone who has silver certification, which is a RIM accreditation and those individuals who do have it usually are on the ball.

All companies who bring out phones have an a hardtime with keeping up with demand. Though with this device I dont see as much hype on it as the pearl so i dont think stock shortages will be that bad (as well as this time of the year is slower in sales in the cellular world, where as the pearl came out right around backtoschool/ pre xmas shopping time).

The pearl was really rushed interms of getting the product ready to sell, they knew it would be hot and they didnt want to miss the rush. That might explain the miscommunication/ why the staff didnt know what was going on.

the question is “Will Cingular have a more successful roll-out with the 8800 than that of the Pearl?”

and simple, straightforward, and obvious answer is… HOW COULD THEY NOT? the 8800 launch almost has to be more successful by default…

“Will Cingular have a more successful roll-out with the 8800 than that of the Pearl?”

How could they not? I’ll tell you. Now dont under estimate that I do love the 8800, and its definitly a mean machine, however.

At simple glance it seems like a rethorical question, will the 8800 be more successful? One would think so when comparing the 8800 to the pearl. But take this food for thought.

The pearl has had more than its fair share of problems, a good amount still unresolved. Are users of the pearl willing to take another blind leap. Are older blackberry users who watched a plethora of issues pour over the blogs step into this device without fear of the same 4.2 issues. Most would think not, at least not right away.

Which brings up my next point, the 8800 is going to have a split crowd. Its only a stop gap for the fully loaded 8900/9000/whatever has the GPS n camera. Most users arnt going to upgrade when they know its a striped down version of whats soon to come.

I’m not expecting apocoliptic failure when the 8800 launchs. But the pearl was much more innovative. The 8800 is just its fat sister without all the hot multimedia, and also a cooler older brother looming in wait isnt goin to boost sales either. Most users who buy the 8800 are going to b enterprise, since most consumers have the pearl or will want the 8900. And enterprises usually dont buy new phones, till theres all break.

So I would not be surprised if the 8800 launch is a little ho-hum and barly meets par on the pearls launch numbers.

I’m not sure if I really care how the rollout goes, I’m tired of talking to Cingular reps that don’t know the difference between BBs and blackberry yogert.
What I do know is, I’d look damn good with a man purse. I’m bringing sexy back. . . .

Its a slower time of year than the Pearl was released. It is for sure going to be a smoother roll out compared to the pearl.

well as i suspected they did do a decent job in the intial roll out. Stock was even being sold out before the expected date. Its hard enough for a company to get product ready for launch date but to be quicker than the release date is great news for consumers.

steve asked me “if it was a good thing they released it sooner than the release date?”

My response is: earlier is much much better than later. If it rewards the people who have stayed ontop of the blackberry forums and who really want them. The date that Cingular gave out was just a arbitrary date that was to insure that all stores would have them shipped out to all their locations and ready to sell.

In a perfect world Cingular could have waited to the release date and it might have made things simplier, but as someone who is a blackberry lover, things could have gone much much worse.

I think that the launch of the 880 is going to roll much more smoothly than that of the Pearl. There are several small reasons, but one huge glaring difference between the Pearl and the 880: The 8800 has a FULL KEYBOARD! This may seem like a trivial issue, but I think this was the main downfall of the BB Pearl. The fact is, regardless of all the other great features Blackberry’s have, most people, whether for business or personal use, treat their BB as a portable email machine. By placing two letter keys per button, RIM doomed the Pearl to failure. In my eyes, and the main reason I decided to get a Blackberry, was the fact that it has a full QWERTY keyboard, which makes typing emails, especially longer, job related ones a snap. The Pearl had many cool and interesting ‘fun’ features (like a camera), but the bottom line is that most folks aren’t willing to, or can’t sacrifice the ability to easily compose mail messages. Because the 8800 has many of the fun features of the Pearl like the multimedia player, great instant messaging support and supports memory cards, but has a full keyboard as well, users can have their cake and eat it too. I think RIM realized that while many users want all the fun goodies, the Blackberry is primarily a ‘serious’ tool to get things done, and users aren’t or can’t sacrifice the business functionality for what is essentially a ‘fresh coat of paint’. Because of the 8800′s smart and functional design, I think we will see a successful launch,and the device will be quite popular.