Blackberry Phones

Press Release
TDMobility Operated through Tech Data and Brightstar Joint Venture to Offer Value-Added Resellers a Single Source for BlackBerry Devices, Software and Support Services

WATERLOO, ONTARIO and CLEARWATER, FLORIDA – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) and Tech Data Corporation (NASDAQ:TECD) today announced a new agreement that enables Tech Data to distribute BlackBerry® devices, software and technical support services to its channel of over 60,000 value-added resellers in the United States. The agreement also allows Tech Data to support the end-to-end sale of BlackBerry solutions for small to mid-sized businesses through Tech Data’s new TDMobility offering operated by ActivateIT, a Tech Data and Brightstar Corp. joint venture company.

“This agreement opens up new channels for BlackBerry solutions targeted at small to mid-sized businesses in the U.S.,” said Derek Peper, Vice President, Enterprise Sales and Strategic Partnerships at Research In Motion. “RIM is also pleased to support the innovative TDMobility offering through this new relationship with Tech Data – an offering that supports the end-to-end sale of BlackBerry solutions, from devices and software through to training and technical support. This is a great win for RIM, Tech Data, Brightstar, the reseller community, our carrier partners and, most importantly, our business customers.”

Bringing together two of the world’s largest technology distribution companies, Tech Data and Brightstar, gives TDMobility tremendous size and a wide-ranging set of skills. Tech Data’s existing operations allow TDMobility to simplify the entire mobility transaction for resellers, while providing access to state-of-the-art mobile devices, a streamlined activation process with leading mobile carriers, and a commission structure that can improve profitability and cash flow for resellers. Completing the solution, TDMobility enables resellers to create a recurring revenue stream by taking advantage of ActivateIT’s Cell Manage platform to help resellers simplify their customers’ deployments by offering consolidated billing.

“RIM is a strategic vendor partner for our launch of TDMobility into the channel, and ActivateIT is key to making the complete solution possible,” said Joe Quaglia, Senior Vice President of U.S. Marketing at Tech Data. “We formed a strategic alliance with Brightstar to enable just this kind of offering and we’re excited to offer our reseller customers the opportunity to increase their footprint in the channel by making complete, end-to-end BlackBerry solutions more easily available.” Read more

Another year, another BlackBerry Torch on AT&T. Though the new model looks quite similar to the outgoing Torch 9800, it sports a lot of improvements under the hood. Instead of a dated 624MHz XScale CPU, we have a 1.2GHz CPU, and we’ve got a new OS, BlackBerry 7, that cuts the bloat and improves on web browsing. The display still measures 3.2″, but the resolution is higher at VGA 640 x 480 for a very sharp 253dpi pixel density. That means sharper looking photos and videos, but also plenty of zooming to make text readable in the web browser.

The Torch 9810 has a 5 megapixel camera that can shoot 720p video, and quality is improved over the original Torch. The phone has WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, a GPS and 8 gigs of internal storage plus a microSD card slot. It’s triband HSPA+ 4G for significantly faster data speeds, and that’s a good thing since the web browser now works well with desktop full HTML sites and streams video nicely. Read more

If you have used or read about the Twitter client UberSocial, odds are you know that many users love the ability to change themes on it. 50cent himself even had a custom Uber50 theme made for the application. Today the folks at UberMedia have released yet another theme for the application, this time a martial arts styled theme named UberWarrior.

The theme has a custom martial arts background, with a grey, black and red color scheme, and is available as a free download. You will need to be running the latest version of UberSocial for it to work, so be sure to hit the source link and get yourself all set up.

Good news for BlackBerry diehards looking for an affordable yet modern RIM handset on T-Mobile. The carrier just announced plans to sell the BlackBerry Curve 9360, running the latest BlackBerry 7 OS, at a reasonable $79.99 after $50 mail-in rebate.

The phone’s other important features are a 2.4-inch display, a curved QWERTY keyboard, 5-megapixel camera with flash, and optical trackpad designed for one-handed use. Noticeably absent though is fast 4G data access, and touchscreen abilities. That said, crackberry addicts may not bemoan these shortcomings since the Curve 9360 provides the current BlackBerry 7 operating system which now offers over 35,000 apps for download. Still that number pales in comparison to iOS (425K )and Android (200K).

NFC (Near Field Communication) technology is also on board which will theoretically enable mobile wallet services should RIM announce support for them.

T-Mobile expects a  standard black model to hit stores on September 28th with a merlot-colored version coming on October 12th. Both devices will cost $79.99, much less than the premium BlackBerry 9900 which the carrier offers for a lofty $299.

Research In Motion on Thursday reported its earnings results for the fiscal second quarter. Revenue and EPS both missed estimates; the vendor reported revenue of $4.17 billion and earnings of $0.80 per share. RIM had previously forecast revenue of between $4.2 billion and $4.5 billion and earnings of between $0.75 and $1.05 per share for its August quarter, and Wall Street expected second-quarter revenue of $4.47 billion and EPS of $0.88. Net income in the second quarter totalled $329 million. RIM also had projected handset shipments to reach between 11 and 12.5 million units, but missed there as well — the company shipped only 10.6 million BlackBerry phones in its August quarter.

RIM still managed to push its subscriber base past 70 million for the first time, up 40% year-over-year. As for RIM’s QNX tablet, PlayBook shipments fell well below expectations; the company only shipped 200,000 units during the device’s first full quarter of availability, less than half of analysts’ expectations (700,000). RIM shipped 500,000 PlayBooks in its previous quarter. The company’s stock fell 11% immediately following its report. Full press release after the break. RIM’s full press release follows below. Read more

Granted that Sprint customers received the grim news that the release of the BlackBerry Curve 9350 is being delayed, we managed to check out its GSM cousin in the BlackBerry Curve 9360 at Pepcom’s event in New York City today.

First and foremost, there’s no denying that it’s part of the beloved Curve family since it sports that all too distinguishable Curve keyboard. Since it’s constructed entirely out of glossy plastic, which has a knack for attracting smudges easily, we’re hardly able to notice its presence in our hand since it’s so lightweight. Of course, the feel of the QWERTY keyboard is good, but doesn’t come close to the wicked responsiveness offered by the new Bold 9900’s versatile layout. Still, there isn’t too much that separates the handset’s design from its predecessor in last year’s BlackBerry Curve 3G 9330.

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I confess, when RIM first unveiled the BlackBerry Bold 9900 I wanted one. It was pure unadulterated lust for the best keyboard in the business, and the smartphone looked every bit as high quality and stylish as the iPhone 4 (but RIM-style). And there was nostalgia: like many of you, I was a BlackBerry user and still have fond memories of the original Bold 9000 on AT&T. The phone was better than anything else on the market for messaging, it was fast and it had a lovely industrial design. But the world has moved on since the Bold 9000 circa 2008. Large touch screens dominate, app stores from Apple and Google have made it easy and fun to get hundreds of thousands of apps, and many smartphone platforms handle email (including push email) and messaging well. How does RIM’s latest Bold hold up?

For this review we’re using the Bold 9930 on Verizon Wireless, though the phone is also available on Sprint. The “30″ at the end of the number indicates the cell radio technology, so Sprint and Verizon have the 9930, while AT&T, T-Mobile, Rogers and other GSM carriers have the BlackBerry Bold 9900. Other than carrier customizations and the cellular radio, the Bold 9900 and 9930 are the same phone. In fact, the Verizon 9930 also supports GSM 3G HSDPA (overseas 900/2100MHz bands only) for world roaming. It has a SIM card slot and comes with the usual Vodafone SIM card. For use in the US on Verizon’s network, the phone has 1xRTT and 3G EV-DO Rev. A. Read more

Research In Motion’s new BlackBerry 7 smartphones are seeing strong initial sales among businesses looking to upgrade from older BlackBerry smartphones, however consumer sales have been weak according to Canaccord Genuity. In a research note, Canaccord analysts Mike Walkley and Matt Ramsay found during channel checks that upgrade sales of BlackBerry 7 devices in North America were quite strong with enterprise customers in August. Specifically, Verizon Wireless saw strong Bold 9930 upgrade sales among its substantial enterprise customer base, while AT&T and Sprint saw mixed sales. T-Mobile’s $300 Bold 9900 has not been selling well according to Canaccord’s checks. Read on for more.

“Our August checks indicated strong initial Bold 9930 sales to the large installed Verizon enterprise base, but most store managers indicated limited sales to consumer customers that continue to choose the iPhone or Android smartphones versus BlackBerry,” the analysts wrote. “With the Bold 9900 the first compelling new BlackBerry in nearly two years for Verizon customers, we were encouraged as our checks indicated Verizon’s large BlackBerry enterprise base appears to have strong demand for the first BlackBerry OS 7 device on Verizon’s network. However, our more consumer-centric retail store checks indicated smartphone consumers continue to overwhelmingly choose the iPhone 4 or new Android smartphones versus the $250 Bold 9900.”

Walkley and Ramsay continue, noting that initial sales of AT&T’s $50 Torch 9810 have been strong among consumers, though margins are likely tight considering the original Torch 9800′s $200 price tag. Canaccord believes RIM was forced to match the price of AT&T’s iPhone 3GS and HTC Status in order to attract consumers to the new Torch. Enterprise interest in the device has been lacking according to the firm’s checks, possibly due to businesses waiting for AT&T to launch the new Bold.

“Our checks at T-Mobile indicated weak initial sales for the Bold 9900, as Android smartphones maintain their top share at this carrier,” the note continues. “We believe the $300 price for this new BB 0S 7 device also contributed to the soft initial sales, and we anticipate T-Mobile will need to lower the price to match its competitors. Finally, our checks at Sprint indicated limited initial supply of Bold 9930 ($200) and the Torch 9850 ($150). While many stores sold out of initial quantities, most stores indicated very limited units at launch (<10 on average per store). As such, Sprint store managers indicated Android smartphones continue to sell much better than BlackBerry.” BGR has independently confirmed with multiple sources that Sprint retailers have received extremely limited inventory of RIM’s new BlackBerry 7 smartphones thus far.

If the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 is the best BlackBerry yet, the BlackBerry Torch 9850 is the most beautiful. Complex curves, judicious use of metal and soft textures– it looks like the apex of European design. In fact, it looks something like a high end Nokia, only with more metal than Nokia uses. The Torch 9850, not to be confused with the BlackBerry Torch 9810 QWERTY slider on AT&T, is a full touch screen phone. It has no hardware keyboard, though a hardware keyboard is generally a ‘Berry’s most beloved feature. The Torch carries on where the BlackBerry Storm 2 left off. We completely understand the name change since the Storm and Storm 2 weren’t RIM’s finest.

The Torch 9850 is pocketable and elegant where the Storm was bulky and boring looking. The Torch looks like a phone you want to own and hold, and thanks to improvements in the on-screen keyboard (sound the death knell for SurePress) and BlackBerry OS 7, it’s a phone worth owning. Will it convert iPhone and Android users? Probably not. OS 7 isn’t much of a radical change from that old and stuffy (though still serviceable) OS 6. But for you BlackBerry addicts who covet a large, high resolution display over a hardware keyboard, this is a fine ‘Berry. Read more

Anybody who dare think or say that the passion for BlackBerry is waning need not look further than the reader comments on our Petition to AT&T to Release the BlackBerry Bold 9900. AT&T… you seriously need to read them. It’s clear that AT&T CUSTOMERS WANT THEIR BLACKBERRY BOLD 9900s and by not having it released you are losing out!!

On this week’s CrackBerry Podcast, we discussed the petition and half-seriously/half-jokingly decided that September 17th would be the day we take to the streets and do some good ‘ole fashioned smartphone picketing to bring more real-world attention to our cause if we hadn’t received a received word on a release date by then. That’s all we’re looking for AT&T, just a little better communication about the BlackBerry Bold 9900. Better than a release date we’d like to see it released SOON of course, but I think a lot of us would be happier right now if we just knew when it would become available.

I’m still struggling with a reason of why it hasn’t been released seeing as Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are all selling the 9930/9900, but at this point I don’t even care. The most likely reasoning is actually a positive one — that AT&T is pushing their exclusive of the Torch 9810 for only $49.99, which is a GREAT DEAL (so thank you for that AT&T). I know quite a few Torch 9800 owners now who have gone ahead and upgraded to the 9810 because of this deal and they’re loving it. But I just hate seeing people jonesing for a new BlackBerry any longer than they need to, and I think to a lot of people the Bold 9900 is distinctly different than the Torch 9810.

In the meantime, the petition is still going strong at the link below (and by leaving a petition comment you’ll be entered to win an AT&T BlackBerry Bold 9900 when it gets released) so be sure to jump over to the petition and have your voice heard.