RIM have officially announced the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and it’s one of the best devices in their product line. Of course, everyone is excited about the BlackBerry Storm 2, but they serve very different markets. The Storm 2 is a device for the consumer market, while the 9700 would be better suited for enterprise.
The official press releases for the Bold 9700 from Rogers and AT&T, included pricing for the device and they differ slightly in their promotional offerings. The BlackBerry Bold 9700 will be available from Rogers in the coming weeks for $299.99 on a three-year voice and data activation with a minimum monthly service plan of $45.
The BlackBerry Bold 9700 will also be available from AT&T but for only $199.99 (pay $299.99 and receive $100 mail-in-rebate).
T-Mobile and Bell have not announced what they will be selling the device for but it’s likely to be around the same price as AT&T and Rogers. The question is whether they will force users to mail in their rebate, or offer an entirely different promotion.
The BlackBerry Storm2 is available for pre-order from Vodafone and it’s free with a new service plan. The service plan is reasonable and the fact that these devices are being offered for free is a huge step in device pricing.
The Storm2 pricing seems to be indicative of a much more competitive pricing model which could be traced to some improvements in the manufacturing process. Since RIM and carriers have much more freedom in pricing, we could see some great sales figures from this device. The original Storm retailed for a couple hundred dollars after a rebate, therefore this device is relatively cheap.
On a less positive note, it’s clear that the new way of naming the Storm as the Storm2 is confusing a lot of people. For example, the Vodafone website lists the device as the Storm2, but the title of the page is “BlackBerry Storm 2.” While I appreciate the marketing efforts to give the Storm a cool name, it’s not exactly the most practical marketing effort.
This article attempts to relay my experiences and lessons learned in the making of PodTrapper, my first mobile application for BlackBerry. It will cover development, pricing, marketing and sales in addition to other items I thought were relevant.
It all started in November of last year. I’m an avid podcast listener during my commutes, and at the time the only viable way to listen was to tote around my iPod. But I still needed my BlackBerry for work, so I was stuck with two devices. I had been toying with the idea of writing a podcast player for BlackBerry and with the announcement of the App World it was now or never. I’m hoping that the success of the iPhone App Store will enable other platforms to follow suit. Afterall, BlackBerry currently has more users and is shipping twice as many phones, albeit to users that may not know apps are available for their phone… yet. Plus the whole project sounded like a lot of fun.
I’ve read all the stories about iPhone developers making fortunes selling apps, how that may not really be the case, or even that people don’t even use the apps they download. I assumed that the truth was somewhere in the middle, but at the very least I wouldn’t have to carry two devices anymore.
HowardForums member Matrix2004 has posted that BlackBerry Storm 9530 pricing information is up on Verizon’s test site. The magic number? $219 on a 2 year contract, $289 on a 1 year contract and $519 straight up. These prices do not include any rebates, so the final price may be lower. You can see for yourself by clicking the link below and using 85001 as your area code.
HOWEVER, once there, you will notice a lack of graphical assets and placeholder text from the BlackBerry 8830, which means the price may be placeholder as well ($219 is an odd number…). In addition, Matrix2004 himself has said that this may not be the final price, so don’t set your hopes too high.
What can we take from this? If the price is correct, this Christmas Verizon and RIM are going to see a lot of BlackBerry Storms. Also, if Verizon had announced pricing information when they were sending out Storm promotional emails, people wouldn’t be creeping their testing site looking, and there wouldn’t be so much confusion. At this point we have to ask if Verizon is still trying to build hype or if they’re not 100% on the ball.
Well, so much for those dreams of a $50 pricetag. The latest Rogers ad materials are showing off the upcoming flip BlackBerry Pearl for $149.99 on a three-year contract – not what you’d call a generous back-to-school offer for the students who might be interested in grabbing one of these. Previous info was confirming a $50 promotion, but at this point it’s all up in the air until launch, ballparked for around mid-September. Word has it T-Mobile customers will also be getting the Kickstart – hopefully they’ll have more humane pricing.
There’s been some speedy solidifcation of the BlackBerry Pearl 8220 prices that were leaked earlier this morning, with sources confirming a $49.99 promotional deal on the handset with a three-year plan, which will eventually go up to $99.99. Rogers reps will be pimping this one out with a $45 student plan which will include
450 Weekday Minutes
Unlimited Evenings and Weekends starting at 6pm
MY5 Canada-Wide (Unlimited talk, SMS, and MMS to any five numbers in Canada)
Unlimited Local Incoming Minutes
$5 off Value Pack for duration of contract
The plans, which need to include e-mail and a Value Pack, total to $75 and up, which, sad as it may be, is standard for Canadian students.
Some fresh screengrabs from a Rogers order form is showing the BlackBerry Bold for $899.99 and the BlackBerry 8220 (a.k.a Kickstart) for $599.99, presumably unsubsidized. The final cost is looking like $275 on a three-year plan, which would put it in the same ballpark as our previous expectations of the BlackBerry 9000 matching iPhone pricing. As for the new flip BlackBerry Pearl, they’re going to have to do some serious discounting if it’s really going to hit that $50 sweet spot. The $30 6GB plan which had been previously set up to lure in iPhone customers has also been extended to all Q3 BlackBerrys. We had been a little anxious to sign on to the sweet deal, since it was slated to finish at the end of the summer, but it makes sense to keep the plan around for the BlackBerry 9000 launch. Last we heard, the BlackBerry Bold was to be available on August 19th., but that date has been pushed back so many times that it’s hard to take the rumours seriously at this point. The BlackBerry 8220 should be landing mid-September in all its flippy goodness.
While Austria usually tends to get stuff shortly after Germany, it looks like they’ll be getting it right on time with everyone else when it comes to the BlackBerry Bold. A1 will shortly be offering the BlackBerry 9000 for € 249,00 ($US 399), presumably with a contract considering the T-Mobile Germany price was clocking in at €550 ($US 880). T-Mobile will also be offering the BlackBerry Bold in Austra, if this Ebay auction is any indication. While we’ve heard about a lot of the larger countries (Australia, Canada, United States, Germany, etc.) getting the BlackBerry Bold lovin’, it’s good to see that the launch is reaching as far and wide as possible.
