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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.
Who would have thought?! With Bell, Telus and Rogers launching the Torch on September 24th, it’s a shocker to see Virgin launching on the 24th too. It would be great to see Virgin slip the Torch launch in just a little earlier than everyone else and launch with a big sign that says “first to bring the Torch to Canada”. Richard Branson has the guts to do it.
The Torch is an AT&T exclusive right now and it looks like the international sales will start to kick off around mid-September for both Canada with Rogers and the UK with Vodafone. While we don’t have an exact date, it’s good to know that it’s less than a month away. Perhaps it’s around then that we’ll also start to see BlackBerry 6 being rolled out to the Bold 9700 and other devices.
This news is a little old but Virgin Blue has launched a check-in app for BlackBerry called Check-Mate. The app lets Virgin Blue travelers in Australia to make flight bookings, changes and cancellations across the entire Virgin Blue domestic network from their BlackBerry. Check-Mate also allows you to select your seat and board via 2D barcode scanning. Boarding with your mobile is far more convenient and I’m looking forward to when paper is completely obsolete.
Virgin Mobile Canada have launched their HSPA+ network piggybacking on the Bell infrastructure. The network has expected download speeds of up to 21.6 megabits per second and uploads of up 5.76. Virgin Mobile are also offering the BlackBerry Bold 9700 at $149.99 with a 3 year contract or $549.99 without contract.
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 seems to be making the rounds faster than any other device in RIM’s product line. Virgin is the latest provider to pick up the device, making it available on a monthly service plan. The cheapest monthly service plan involves getting locked in for 2 years, and for 25 EUROS a month, you get 200 voice minutes and unlimited texts, mail and mobile internet. The word unlimited comes with a fair use policy though.
