Comments on: Weekly Contest: Showing CDMA Love

By: Weekly Contest: The Post-9000 Wishlist | blackberry phone reviews

Weekly Contest: The Post-9000 Wishlist | blackberry phone reviews — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:48:51 +0000

[...] the old designations stick, resulting in a SureType device like the Pearl? Will CDMA get any more love with this series, perhaps with a few more dual-mode models? You might even want to check out one of [...]

By: Weekly Contest: Lifesaver | blackberry phone reviews

Weekly Contest: Lifesaver | blackberry phone reviews — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:17:47 +0000

[...] BlackBerrys. Jake made some fine points about carriers’ desire to latch onto data rates, and Ricky made a great suggestion to close the gap between GSM and CDMA releases so they could both ride the [...]

By: Jake Billo

Jake Billo — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:41:43 +0000

@Sherlock06: All carriers in Canada have the “unlimited email” $15 BIS plan. T-Mobile US pioneered it as their $10 plan.

Only Telus, on their (currently offered) $30 plan, enables BIS-B browsing. Both Bell and Rogers, IIRC, lock down the browser or charge extra for it.

This isn’t carrier favoritism – it’s just how things work in Canada at present.

By: Jake Billo

Jake Billo — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:41:00 +0000

@Sherlock06: All carriers in Canada have the “unlimited email” $15 BIS plan. T-Mobile US pioneered it as their $10 plan.

Only Telus, on their (currently offered) $30 plan, enables BIS-B browsing. Both Bell and Rogers, IIRC, lock down the browser or charge extra for it.

This isn’t carrier favoritism – it’s just how things work in Canada at present.

By: Weekly Contest: Lifesaver | BlackBerry Cool

Weekly Contest: Lifesaver | BlackBerry Cool — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:33:03 +0000

[...] so they could both ride the same hype. It’s a really tough call this week, but I think Karan will be our winner for noting why RIM doesn’t show CDMA more love than they do. As much as we [...]

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:25:59 +0000

I just recently got my Blackberry Pearl from verizon and I don’t notice anything wrong with it. My sister has a Blackberry from T-mobile and I have used it before and I don’t notice anything different with them.
In regards to there not being this blackberry or that blackberry, it all about cellphone company demands. You don’t always see the same phones at places because companies bid on who will supply witch phone. And if the CDMA companies don’t really bid on a phone then they don’t have a reason to make a CDMA phone just for them.
It come down to supply and demand

also the blackberry needs to put more memory on their phones. there are 8 gig flash drives, they can put a little more memory on there phones. I say this cuz my phone can hold songs, but what’s the point if it can only hold one small song if it takes up my whole memory.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:25:00 +0000

By: Ian Collins

Ian Collins — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:18:49 +0000

I think that all phones should have 2 versions. GSM and CDMA, If I want to upgrade to a newer BlackBerry and my provider is GSM and the newer phone is CDMA it would be a pain. I also believe that all providers carry the same phones. I don’t want to switch providers to upgrade because my current provider does not carry that phone.

By: Ian Collins

Ian Collins — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:18:00 +0000

By: Sherlock06

Sherlock06 — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:32:43 +0000

I keep hearing about the launch of the Curve for Telus, Sprint and Verizon but everyone seems to forget about Bell. To my knowledge, they will be launching it before everyone (less than 2 weeks).

PS. This is for Jake Billo. Bell also has the unlimited plan for BIS ($15/mth)

By: Sherlock06

Sherlock06 — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:32:00 +0000

I keep hearing about the launch of the Curve for Telus, Sprint and Verizon but everyone seems to forget about Bell. To my knowledge, they will be launching it before everyone (less than 2 weeks).

PS. This is for Jake Billo. Bell also has the unlimited plan for BIS ($15/mth)

By: Ricky

Ricky — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:40:04 +0000

As a verizon user, i find it very frustrating that CDMA handsets come out so much alter than their GSM relatives. however, i can understand that there is a need for this, due to the larger GSM market, and th need to make the phones CDMA compatible. However, i wonder if holding the GSM phones back a month or two might be beneficial in the long run. I know no consumer would like this, but RIM could definitely benefit more off of the hype of a new model announcement if all carriers were getting the phone, at least within a reasonable time period of the announcement. I’m not saying hole the GSMs until CDMAs are ready, but shrink the gap from 9+ months to 5 or 6. Downsides of this strategy would be less time to improve the CDMA models (think working out the bugs from the 8100 to the 8130), and consumers would have to wait longer for the GSM models to be released.

By: Ricky

Ricky — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:40:00 +0000

By: Karan M

Karan M — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:45:13 +0000

I think at the end of the day it comes down to a few simple issues:
1. RIM has a much larger addressable market by creating and marketing GSM models. The numbers game makes that pretty easy.
2. They also have exclusivity deals to provide these same GSM providers with dibs on the device and they someitmes market a different model to each to give them the necessary differnetiation to keep certain customers. (some get 8310, others 8320 for e.g.). I believe that’s also why there is no CDMA wifi version as that would compete with 8320 providers.
3. CDMA doesn’t get a lot of love from RIM, but RIM doesn’t shut them out either. They wait until manufacturing costs for the new device come down before designing with the new CDMA radios. As well, having the CDMA carriers around flogging these gives them some additional leverage against the other carriers during negotiations on the revenue sharing.

I think that last one is also why RIM may not like CDMA providers as much. They seem to be the ones offering unlimited data moreso than GSM providers and that reduces ARPU (avg rev per user) and therefore reduces the amount of rev shared back to RIM.

Just a thought …

By: Karan M

Karan M — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:45:00 +0000

Just a thought …

By: Roger

Roger — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:41:34 +0000

I have been waiting so long for the CDMA 8330. I almost gave up hope and jumped ship to a GSM carrier not only to be able to get the Curve, but for all the upcoming Blackberries as well. Very frustrating that GSM devices seem to come out almost a year before their repsective CDMA counterparts. I don’t understand why they can’t release both GSM and CDMA versions at the same time. I understand the global appeal of GSM, but last I checked, I thought that CDMA had more subscribers in North America…where I thought the bulk of RIMs customers were located…

By: Roger

Roger — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:41:00 +0000

By: David B

David B — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:22:03 +0000

I say SHAME ON RIM for being asleep at the wheel. They COULD have head off so much iPhone hype if they’d been with it and had a Curve ready to go on CDMA and launched it around the same time! IMO, the Curve is ONLY device in the RIM line-up with a chance to go, and it beats the iPhone hands down with EV-DO and a full QWERTY keyboard (and style to boot).
People can SAY RIM is finally giving some DMA love, but where’s EV-DO Rev A? Nowhere to be found in the RIM line-up, but then again neither is 3G GSM, so ….

By: David B

David B — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:22:00 +0000

By: CDMA BlackBerry with WiFi? Reasonable? | Bus error: Jake Billo's weblog

CDMA BlackBerry with WiFi? Reasonable? | Bus error: Jake Billo's weblog — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:18:47 +0000

[...] of a comment I posted at BlackBerry Cool: With respect to WiFi, RIM’s strategy seems to be that they offer it to carriers committed to [...]