Blackberry Phones

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.

Hey T-Mobile fans, if you’ve been itching for the BlackBerry Bold 9900 to launch, your wait is over! You can head on over to the website and grab yourself one for $299 (after $50 mail-in-rebate) on a 2-year contract with appropriate data package. Suggested retail is $599 if you’re looking to buy one outright.

Now all of the major US carriers have the BlackBerry Bold 9900 or 9930 available, except for AT&T, of course.

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Call them crazy or whatever you want, but there’s no denying that T-Mobile must be making a bold move by pricing their BlackBerry Bold 9900 at $299.99 on-contract. Easily $100 more than some other top-notch smartphones like the T-Mobile myTouch 4G and HTC Sensation 4G, some might be easily turned away from such a hefty price.

Thankfully, Walmart appears to be saving the day as they’re discounting the handset heavily to bring its pricing down to a more suitable position. Specifically, they’re only asking new customers to shell out $119.99 with a 2-year contract, which is something much more fitting for this kind of handset.

Strangely, it boggles our mind to find that upgrade customers will need to pay considerably more at $319.99 a pop to pick up the handset. Meaning, you’re better off going off with T-Mobile if you’re looking to upgrade your line.

Nevertheless, at least its pricing for new customers is far superior to what T-Mobile is asking for – so if you’re interested, you’d better flock on over to Walmart’s web site to pick one up.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is now officially a part of T-Mobile’s portfolio after the carrier announced that it will be releasing the smartphone on August 31. Retail customers will be able to grab the handset for $299 after a $50 rebate, as long as they do not mind committing to a 2-year agreement, of course. T-Mobile business clients, however, are given the privilege to pre-order their Bold 9900 today, which ensures that they will be among the first to get a fresh taste of the new ‘Berry smartphone.

So, what is so special about the BlackBerry Bold 9900 that justifies its relatively hefty price tag? Well, let’s go into detail and try to find out. First of all, the device boasts the recognizable BlackBerry form factor and sports that almost iconic QWERTY keyboard praised by fans of the brand worldwide. Furthermore, its display clocks in at 640 by 480 pixels of resolution, which is impressive for a 2.8-inch display.

We’ve heard dates aplenty for the T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9900 already but one thing has remained true — the month will be August. A new leak is pegging the date for August 31st to be more precise, and along with that leak is the fact that T-Mobile stores are now also putting out some promo material for the device.

T-Mobile was among the first carriers to confirm release of the BackBerry Bold 9900 when it was first announced, so when ready — we’re pretty sure they will go pretty hard at promoting the device. Judging from the info, customers will also get a $50 MIR when you opt in for a $20+ data plan.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has mail. It’s only a page and a paragraph long, but the letter he’s received this week has much gravitas attached to it, coming as it does from a select group of the tech industry’s biggest companies, all of whom are lending their support to AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. Of the eight new proponents of the deal, Microsoft, Facebook and Yahoo form a sub-group of software / web content distributors, whereas Qualcomm, RIM, Avaya, Brocade, and Oracle will have been motivated to speak up because they see the takeover as expanding opportunities to sell their mobile and networking hardware.

The entire octet agrees that the melding of AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks into one is a requisite move for broadening mobile broadband availability in the US and for keeping the country competitive with the rest of the world. In their words, “an increasingly robust and efficient wireless network is part of a virtuous innovation cycle.” Virtuous for them, perhaps, but what about consumers faced with an increasingly binary choice of mobile carrier? Who shall protect their virtue?

T-Mobile has a new 2011 roadmap that shows off a bevy of new handsets apart from the Samsung Hercules – we are talkinga bout the HTC G-Infinity, LG Optimus II, BlackBerry Bold Touch, Monza, and Apollo – all in the coming months.

This June, you will get be able to get your hands on the Sensation 4G, t499 Tass, and t379 Triumph. Apart from that, do look forward also to the Huawei E587 “Wayne” which is a 42Mbps HSPA+ mobile hotspot that sports 802.11n capability and a built-in display.

As for July, look out for the myTouch 4G Slide, Marvel, and Monza, while the long-rumored HTC “Doubleshot” also looks set to arrive on the 6th. As for the HTC Marvel that will be out on the 15th, it might actually end up being a T-Mobile-branded Wildfire S, sporting mid-range specifications including a 3.2″ display and an 800MHz Qualcomm processor.

BlackBerry fans can look forward to the Monza on July 27th, where it is slated to be a full-touch handset that features 14.4Mbps HSPA connectivity, a 3.7″ display at 480 x 800 resolution, a 1.2GHz single-core Snapdragon processor, a 5-megapixel camera with 720p video capture capability, and BlackBerry 7 – does that mean a new operating system version is in the pipeline?

We’re just little under a week away from the start of BlackBerry World in Orlando, Florida and while we’re expecting to hear quite a bit about the PlayBook but we’d be lying if we didn’t say we’re just a little bit more excited to hear about some new BlackBerry Smartphones. Since the BlackBerry 2011 roadmap showed up, we’ve been wondering when we’d see the new smartphones come to market — and now some new rumors, mixed with old rumors have a possible launch date for at least one device.

The BlackBerry Touch aka. monza has for a while been suggested as coming to market in June or July but the launch date has now gotten rather specific — June 29th. Granted, that is just a rumored date and there isn’t much else to go on but it’s certainly a date we’d like to see become reality. Hopefully, we’ll find out more as we head into BlackBerry World.

Here is something that is a bit funny as it is interesting. We are not sure if this is just an error on T-Mobile’s part or if they really have 4G plans available for a BlackBerry.

While T-Mobile may be advertising 4G, they are years away from having a full scale 4G nationwide coverage. Nevertheless, a call to T-Mobile customer service has proven nothing, except that they don’t know, as usual. So what could this be? Is T-Mobile really gearing up for a 4G BlackBerry or just a re-branded 3G HSPA+?

If you’ve been been waiting for the BlackBerry Bold 9780  to hit a US carrier then tonight is the night. T-Mobile has now posted up the BlackBerry Bold 9780 in black and white. $129.99 with a new 2 year contract and it’s all yours. if retail price is more your style and you like not having a contract then you’ll be looking at $449.99 as your final damage. Some areas are still showing the device as back ordered but, other areas show it as available. Our guess is that it’s still filtering through the site so if your zip isn’t showing it as available yet, it will be shortly.