Bell has recently come out with a cool promo to ditch their old 8703e stock by giving away four of ‘em with every BlackBerry 8130 and 8830. Besides the devices, Bell is also offering bulk data plans to be split among those new users: $100 for 1 GB, $60 for 30 MB, $40 for 8 MB, $25 for 4 MB and another $20 for each additional user (over five?). This is a pretty sweet deal for companies that have executives and underlings to equip in a hurry. More info over here.
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Bell offers bulk BlackBerry deal
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There’s already been some griping about BlackBerry’s performance in Consumer Reports‘ ’08 issue, and it might be well-justified. The BlackBerry Curve landed in 7th. place, the Pearl in 12th., the 8800 in 14th., and the 8830 in 19th. out of 20 smartphones tested. Two Treos (755p and 680), T-Mobile’s Wing, the BlackJack and the Moto Q 9m beat out the BlackBerry 8300, with the iPhone topping the list.
Basically, that means everyone who matters in smartphones did better than BlackBerry. Suprisingly, the Nokia N95 (which I had heard great things about) was down in 15th. place. The biggest thing to keep in mind before launching into a CR-hating tirade is that you really have to take these things with a grain of salt. CR’s overall scores were “based mainly on voice quality, ease of use, and talk time”, which can all vary based on user, location and carrier. I haven’t used any of the other top 5, so can’t really pass judgement. Anyone have some horror stories about the leaders, and why they might not deserve top marks?
Kiwis rejoice, the BlackBerry 8830 is coming your way from Telecom New Zealand. Previously, Vodafone usually brought the BlackBerrys in, who’s currently carrying the Pearl and GPS Curve, but now New Zealanders will be able to enjoy a bit of variety in their BlackBerry options. On top of the device, Telecom will also be offering BES service to any corporate customers looking to get a BlackBerry rollout.
Centennial has announced the BlackBerry 8703e and 8830 in Puerto Rico, both of which will enjoy GPS navigation and make use of the island-wide EV-DO network. Centennial just launched their BlackBerry service in the US this September, and already the love spreading down to the tropics. While we won’t be seeing the Curve on the Centennial’s CDMA network anytime soon, the BlackBerry 8130 is making the rounds, so it could very well end up down in Puerto Rico soon. You can grab the 8703e for $149.99 and the 8830 for $249.99 over here.
We just got a tip about a new software patch for the Verizon BlackBerry 8830 which will enable GPS for their Navigator service, which will cost you $9.99 monthly or $2.99 per day. According to our source it doesn’t look like a full unlocking, but if you want to interpret “App Based Tracking Implementation” as a full-blown GPS unlock, feel free. I guess your 8830 isn’t as closed as it used to be, eh Lowell? The patch (4.2.2 release 339) also includes some audio quality and spell check fixes, but who cares about that, right?
Dan just linked us up to an interview with Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, which was mainly addressing Google and the open access spectrum. The conversation brought McAdam to say a few interesting things to say about his BlackBerry 8830.
On an open ecosystem, he says: “If you look at the example of our content, when we first opened up, we had a completely walled garden. We have been bringing that wall down and opening up more applications. The balance is you have to keep the customer in the equation. It’s not just up to the Microsofts or the Intels or the carriers to make the decision. I carry a BlackBerry 8830. That device is one of the most closed devices on the market today. It’s also one of the most popular. Customers can rely on it. Return rates are single digits, 1 to 3 percent. You can put anything you want on some open smart-phones. What would you guess are the return rates on a comparable device to the BlackBerry, with open applications?..Over 40 percent. You can’t predict how applications are going to interact in the real world. It sounds really good. How can a developer of a device predict how those applications are going to interact in the real world? It’s back to the fact that they’re complicated computers and it’s not always predictable.”
A buddy was showing me some of the stuff he could do on a Windows Mobile device the other day, and I could see how BlackBerrys seem closed in comparison, but as Dan notes, there’s still plenty of 3rd-party software available out there. And c’mon – “one of the most closed devices on the market today”? That might be pushing it. What do you guys think – are BlackBerrys closed platforms, or open just enough?
