Time for the next entry in our 6 week series of contests by Griffin Technology. For 6 weeks, we’ll be giving away prize packages and all you have to do is comment. Each week’s prize package will be different and on the 6th week we’re giving away a grand prize.
Wal-Mart has a large list of BlackBerry devices that they’re offering for free with service plan conditions. While the retail giant doesn’t supply some of the high end devices such as the Bold and Storm, it does supply every device that would be in the lower to mid range of BlackBerry devices. These devices include the Pearl, Pearl Flip, Curve 83xx, Curve 8900 and the latest Curve 8520.
A big caveat with these deals is that they almost all involve signing up for 2 years worth of services that will cost you at least $125 per month. With some smart BlackBerry usage, you can generally bring your data and voice costs down to under $100 per month. This figure is easily attainable by watching over your voice minutes carefully, and leveraging SMS and email services for communication.
That means that you are committing to a $25 premium on your contract that will need to be paid over the course of 2 years (or 24 months). By those numbers, you are getting your free device at $600, when you could have it for around $200 with a contract. Like a credit card, you are paying an incredible premium for short term benefits.
Research and consulting firm IDC have put together the top selling smartphones in the United States in the second quarter of this year. The list counts vendor sales to carriers and channels (sell-in) rather than sales to end users (sell-through). Further, these numbers are based on preliminary data; IDC will finalize its numbers at the end of this month.
RIM dominate the list holding the number 1 spot, as well as the 6th, 5th and 3rd. RIM’s device strategy, while it may frustrate developers in that it requires apps to be ported several times after development, it is definitely working from a sales perspective. In the end, RIM’s core business is to manufacture and sell smartphones, and in this regard they are clearly succeeding.
In order to capture a certain part of the consumer market, a device needs to be sold without a contract. Too many consumers are scared away by them and would rather pay the fees up front. Truth be told, there are a ton of ways to get out of contracts and you’re better off getting the hardware discount.
Would you really pay 180 GBP for a BlackBerry Pearl? Seems overpriced.
The T-Mobile deal includes a year’s unlimited email and internet access, but not any inclusive calls. The Orange deal charges £5 per month for email and net access, but does come at a cheaper price.
Whenever he starts BlackBerry Pearl’s data connection and places the phone next to the flashlight, the flashlight blinks. The radio waves seem to be interfering with the power connection in the flashlight, but can someone tell me in more detail what is happening?
After a few months of speculation, Fido has relaunched BlackBerry service with the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. That’s right, not the BlackBerry 8120 or even the 8110, but the BlackBerry 8100. However, Fido is Rogers’ low-end consumer brand, so there must be some sort of deal involved, correct? Well, the promo image above shows that the Pearl 8100 can be purchased for $25 with a 3 year Fido agreement/data plan. Hmm, three years is a long time, so what about some sort of month to month option? $400 freaking dollars? What about the data plans?
* $15 – Unlimited personal email and IM
* $25 – 500MB
* $30 – 1GB
* $60 – 3GB
Ok, at least that’s pretty sane. For the youth demographic, though, $15 a month for email and IM (what they want the BlackBerry for anyways) and another $15 for phone service (based upon their cheapest rate) isn’t that bad. But instead of paying $400 or signing a three year contract, swing by the BBCool HQ first: we have a box of old 8100s that we’d be willing to give away, guaranteed (guarantee void in Tennessee).
Good friend Ronen over at BerryReview is reporting that Fido will be launching its muchrumored BlackBerry service on February 4th. Apparently Fido will offer only BIS and no BES service, with their first BlackBerry being the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. Here’s the rumored price points:
BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Pricing
* $400 MTM / No Contract
* $350 on a 2 Year
* $25 on a 3 year w/ Voice + Data (no minimum monthly total cost required).
Fido BIS Data Plans
* $15 – Unlimited Personal Email + IM (BBM, WM, Yahoo, AIM etc…).
* $25 – 500MB BIS Data
* $30 – 1GB BIS Data
* $60 – 3GB BIS Data
Two more important items of note: BlackBerry data will be available to Fido customers without contract and tethering will be allowed. It will be interesting to see what kind of numbers and demographic Fido will attract with their offering. I’m thinking university students that want a cheap BlackBerry Pearl but no contract.
Ha Noi, Viet Nam, Paris, France and Waterloo, Ontario – Viettel, a leading mobile operator in Vietnam, Alcatel-Lucent and Research In Motion today announced the launch of the BlackBerry wireless solution in Vietnam. Using BlackBerry smartphones, Viettel customers will be able to wirelessly send and receive emails, make phone calls, browse the Internet, send text messages and access corporate and lifestyle applications when on the move.
At launch, Viettel will offer its customers the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 and the BlackBerry 8700 and the BlackBerry Curve 8320 smartphones as well as BlackBerry Enterprise Server for corporate customers and BlackBerry Internet Service for smaller businesses and individual users.
Two different Indian carriers announced new information for a wide variety of BlackBerrys today. In news that will only make the rumored AT&T Bold delay sting more, Airtel has announced the launch of the BlackBerry Bold on their network, priced at Rs. 34,990 and available by the end of September.
In addition, Reliance mobile has introduced the first prepaid BlackBerry service in India today for no less than six different devices. Reliance claims that this announcement will help expand BlackBerry interest to the 200 million prepaid users in India.
Reliance Prepaid BlackBerry Support
* The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition
* The BlackBerry Curve 8330
* The BlackBerry Curve 8300
* The BlackBerry Pearl 8100
* The BlackBerry Pearl 8130
* The BlackBerry 8703e
Good friend Ronen over at BerryReview is reporting that Fido will be launching its 
Ha Noi, Viet Nam, Paris, France and Waterloo, Ontario – Viettel, a leading mobile operator in Vietnam, Alcatel-Lucent and Research In Motion today announced the launch of the BlackBerry wireless solution in Vietnam. Using BlackBerry smartphones, Viettel customers will be able to wirelessly send and receive emails, make phone calls, browse the Internet, send text messages and access corporate and lifestyle applications when on the move.
