Weekly Contest: Who runs the wireless industry?

Posted

on August 17, 2007, at 7:21 AM

. Tags: apple, ATT, blackberry, blackberry-8820, carriers, gps, iphone 3g, Jim-Balsillie, manufacturer, RIM, Weekly-Contest.

Comments: 11 responses

11 Comments

Who’s the boss? Yesterday was a busy day, what with the rather spicy rumor we dug up. While it’s smarmy stuff like gutting one device to milk an exclusive on another that we generally associate with the dirty business of multibillion dollar corporations, it’s always a bit of a smack in the face when it actually happens. Regardless of whether the rumor of AT&T gimping the BlackBerry 8820‘s GPS to stay noncompetitive to the iPhone pans out or not, a lot of conversation has been sparked on the subject (a hell of a lot more than we usually see around here, anyway).

Doug’s talk with Jim Balsillie on the subject of RIM’s three masters totally comes into play with this news. At the end of the day, the carrier is RIM’s customer. Is there an alternative? BBCoolers, both old and new, for this week’s contest we ask: Can a manufacturer-led wireless industry work? Is Apple proving that it can? Is Qualcomm proving that it can’t? Would RIM be better off with one less master? There’s no question that both carriers and manufacturers have their vital part in the grand scheme of things, but in the end, the carrier is the one providing the service to the end-user, and if the manufacturer wants his slice of the pie, he has to play the carrier’s game. Is there any changing that business model? For now, we’ll be offering the usual three Bplay games to the most well-rounded and thoughtful answer, but we’ll root around BBCool HQ and see if we can find something a little juicier. This is, after all, a very special Weekly Contest.

LAST WEEK’S WINNER is Bill Pena, for giving us a beefy list of reasons why the Pearl 2 is his personal choice out of the upcoming batch of new BlackBerrys. We’ll be sending you an e-mail shortly to get you set up with three ringtones from Bplay, Bill. Thanks to everyone else who participated, and we look forward to seeing you again in this week’s possibly controversial Weekly Contest.

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Steven Low

I belive the awnser is not putting all your eggs in 1 basket.Rim should and must continue serving all 3 masters(for now).what rim should do is start reaching out to consumers in a more direct manner and see where it goes from there, the way to do this is open exclusive BlackBerry Stores that can hook you up on the carrier that best fits each consumer. Think about It, the way its set up now when a consumer walks into a carrier store the person trying to get customer to sign a contract couldn’t really care less what type of pda/cell phone you buy as long as your signing a contract for their service and the chances of them walking out with a Blackberry is pretty slim considering the choices most stores carry combined with the lack of knowladge and understanding that most sales people have of what the Blackberry is capable of. What I envision is Blackberry stores opening across the nation(I can see it now “BlackBerry” in letters 2 stories high in middle of Times Square that will wipe the smile of off Apples face) stores where the sales and technical staff know and understands how to give each customer and company the absolute most out of their Blackberrys (not like calling a carrier tec support and them telling you take out the battery and out it back in, and if that doesn’t work they are stumped) a place where seminars are offered a place where people are passionate about blackberry and blackberry solutions. We all know that Blackberry is the single best device out there already, the trick is how to let everyone els who is considering a new purchase know what we know and sorry some kid making 7 bucks an hour won’t know how to show them. Considering that the average consumer who really knows their way around a blackberry is only getting around 50% out of what it can really do for them we can only imagine how much potential there is to educate the general user. I guess one of the major issues would be for rim is what incentive would they offer to someone who would consider setting up locations such as this to only deal with blackberrys, as at the end of the day no matter how passionate you are about BlackBerry you still got to pay the Bills but once the consumer is demanding blackberry that will give rim much greater leverage in dealing with the carriers and will be well worth the investment
S.Low
Steven Low

I belive the awnser is not putting all your eggs in 1 basket.Rim should and must continue serving all 3 masters(for now).what rim should do is start reaching out to consumers in a more direct manner and see where it goes from there, the way to do this is open exclusive BlackBerry Stores that can hook you up on the carrier that best fits each consumer. Think about It, the way its set up now when a consumer walks into a carrier store the person trying to get customer to sign a contract couldn’t really care less what type of pda/cell phone you buy as long as your signing a contract for their service and the chances of them walking out with a Blackberry is pretty slim considering the choices most stores carry combined with the lack of knowladge and understanding that most sales people have of what the Blackberry is capable of. What I envision is Blackberry stores opening across the nation(I can see it now “BlackBerry” in letters 2 stories high in middle of Times Square that will wipe the smile of off Apples face) stores where the sales and technical staff know and understands how to give each customer and company the absolute most out of their Blackberrys (not like calling a carrier tec support and them telling you take out the battery and out it back in, and if that doesn’t work they are stumped) a place where seminars are offered a place where people are passionate about blackberry and blackberry solutions. We all know that Blackberry is the single best device out there already, the trick is how to let everyone els who is considering a new purchase know what we know and sorry some kid making 7 bucks an hour won’t know how to show them. Considering that the average consumer who really knows their way around a blackberry is only getting around 50% out of what it can really do for them we can only imagine how much potential there is to educate the general user. I guess one of the major issues would be for rim is what incentive would they offer to someone who would consider setting up locations such as this to only deal with blackberrys, as at the end of the day no matter how passionate you are about BlackBerry you still got to pay the Bills but once the consumer is demanding blackberry that will give rim much greater leverage in dealing with the carriers and will be well worth the investment
S.Low
Steven Low

I belive the awnser is not putting all your eggs in 1 basket.Rim should and must continue serving all 3 masters(for now).what rim should do is start reaching out to consumers in a more direct manner and see where it goes from there, the way to do this is open exclusive BlackBerry Stores that can hook you up on the carrier that best fits each consumer. Think about It, the way its set up now when a consumer walks into a carrier store the person trying to get customer to sign a contract couldn’t really care less what type of pda/cell phone you buy as long as your signing a contract for their service and the chances of them walking out with a Blackberry is pretty slim considering the choices most stores carry combined with the lack of knowladge and understanding that most sales people have of what the Blackberry is capable of. What I envision is Blackberry stores opening across the nation(I can see it now “BlackBerry” in letters 2 stories high in middle of Times Square that will wipe the smile of off Apples face) stores where the sales and technical staff know and understands how to give each customer and company the absolute most out of their Blackberrys (not like calling a carrier tec support and them telling you take out the battery and out it back in, and if that doesn’t work they are stumped) a place where seminars are offered a place where people are passionate about blackberry and blackberry solutions. We all know that Blackberry is the single best device out there already, the trick is how to let everyone els who is considering a new purchase know what we know and sorry some kid making 7 bucks an hour won’t know how to show them. Considering that the average consumer who really knows their way around a blackberry is only getting around 50% out of what it can really do for them we can only imagine how much potential there is to educate the general user. I guess one of the major issues would be for rim is what incentive would they offer to someone who would consider setting up locations such as this to only deal with blackberrys, as at the end of the day no matter how passionate you are about BlackBerry you still got to pay the Bills but once the consumer is demanding blackberry that will give rim much greater leverage in dealing with the carriers and will be well worth the investment
S.Low
test5477

I think your rumor is complete BS unless you think the current 8800′s also have the GPS locked. Complete BS and to put Apple in on it is just a cheap publicity stunt on your part. cheap tactic and bad journalism.
test5477

I think your rumor is complete BS unless you think the current 8800′s also have the GPS locked. Complete BS and to put Apple in on it is just a cheap publicity stunt on your part. cheap tactic and bad journalism.
MichaelBB

So you made up this rumor to stir the pot , total crock of shit. Just like with the 8800 just goto rims site and download the BBMaps and install turn GPS and it works, Here let me say it again IT WORKS. IF and I doubt that they will lock it down people will not buy it or hack the heck out of it. Apples little fame is dying out, I still cant believe that Apple pushed the latest OS to a later date just to put the IPhone out.
MichaelBB

So you made up this rumor to stir the pot , total crock of shit. Just like with the 8800 just goto rims site and download the BBMaps and install turn GPS and it works, Here let me say it again IT WORKS. IF and I doubt that they will lock it down people will not buy it or hack the heck out of it. Apples little fame is dying out, I still cant believe that Apple pushed the latest OS to a later date just to put the IPhone out.
http://www.blackberrycool.com/ BlackBerry Cool Simon

Woah, easy guys. This isn’t something we made up for traffic; we got word from sources reliable enough to post about it. Obviously the news remains in the realm of rumor until the 8820 actually comes out, so take it with a grain of salt. If you’ve got any more comments on the subject, put ‘em in the original post.
http://www.blackberrycool.com BlackBerry Cool Simon

Woah, easy guys. This isn’t something we made up for traffic; we got word from sources reliable enough to post about it. Obviously the news remains in the realm of rumor until the 8820 actually comes out, so take it with a grain of salt. If you’ve got any more comments on the subject, put ‘em in the original post.

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