As a follow-up to the news that Rogers confirmed they’ll be selling the PlayBook, David Neale, VP of Special Projects at RIM, gave a sweet demo of the PlayBook in action. What’s interesting about the demo is that even though the multitasking is killer, it apparently isn’t yet optimized and it’s still running in single core mode. Imagine what dual core would be like?
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Rogers VP John Boynton confirmed at TabLifeTO that the carrier will be carrying the WiFi BlackBerry PlayBook with the 3G models coming once they’re available. It should be interesting to see if the PlayBook will come with the rumored pricing and whether the price will differ between Rogers and other potential sellers such as WalMart or Amazon. Also at TabLifeTO, David Neale, Vice President of Special Projects at RIM took some time to demo the PlayBook which looks great every time we see it in action.
Increasingly, wireless providers are selling their devices in places you wouldn’t expect people to purchase them. The most recent example of this is a 7 year deal struck by Mobilicity with 7-Eleven in which the provider’s phones will be sold in the chain’s convenience stores in three Canadian cities. Who walks in to a 7-Eleven for a Slurpee and walks out with a Bold 9700?
There are several similar stories like the Mobilicity deal. Wind Mobile partnered with Blockbuster to offer mobile devices in movie rental outlets. Rogers sells devices in Shoppers Drug Mart and Bell and Telus sell devices in Black’s retail outlets. Even the grocery store chain Loblaws is beginning to sell mobile phones.
Other places you can purchase a BlackBerry include Amazon, Best Buy, Wal-Mart etc.
So where did you buy your BlackBerry? Would you ever buy one at a grocery store or 7-Eleven?
The Rogers BlackBerry Bold 9780 is currently listed on the Future Shop website at $149.99 on a 3 year contract. The Bold 9780 is the same look and feel as the 9700, except it has a small spec boost, a better 5MP camera, and it ships with BlackBerry 6. It should be interesting to see how well this smartphone sells, considering the Curve 3G is going for $49.99 on a 3 year, and the 9700 is $99 on a 3 year. With the BlackBerry 6 upgrade coming anyways, is a 5MP camera important to you versus 3.2MP?
Rogers has confirmed to us that they’re offering the BlackBerry Bold 9780 and our good friend RogersDude69 let us know that the promo kits are now in stores. This device looks just like the 9700 and while the spec sheet is a little improved, it’s not necessarily going to blow you away. If you’re a happy 9700 user, you’ll probably appreciate the better camera.
Rogers let us know that they’ll be carrying the BlackBerry Bold 9780. This means that the Bold 9780 will be launching on virtually every Canadian carrier including Bell, TELUS and Virgin. The device looks like a small upgrade to the Bold 9700, and it would have been nice to see something with a bit of a larger leap forward. In any case, this is nothing new and it’s always been RIM’s strategy to take small incremental bumps over long leaps.
