04/24/2008, 10:40pm, EDT
Thursday, April 24th3G BlackBerry delayed to avoid iPhone?
Research in Motion's 3G-capable BlackBerry won't launch at the same time as its 3G iPhone counterpart and may have been intentionally delayed, claim sources speaking to Fortune. The handset, now said to be named the BlackBerry 8900 and nicknamed the Meteor, has allegedly had its AT&T release pushed back from June to as far as August. The official explanation is said to revolve around call quality concerns for the smartphone, which is likely to replace the top-end 8800.
However, those same sources suggest the technical justification is a cover for more strategic motives, the magazine reports. AT&T is rumored to be moving the phone's launch ahead by multiple weeks to avoid timing the 8900's launch with the release of a 3G-capable iPhone within days of the BlackBerry, negating the full sales impact of either or both devices. Analyst expectations and other reports would have Apple announce an iPhone with this faster cellular Internet access at its Worldwide Developer Conference on June 10th and release the device no later than June 27th, the Friday closest to the one-year anniversary of the original iPhone's launch on June 29th, 2007.
The 8900 is already known to back up its 3G access (achieved using the HSDPA standard used by AT&T) with a friendlier home screen and may also include both GPS navigation and Wi-Fi at the same time, outperforming or exceeding the current iPhone in terms of sheer feature set and matching devices such as the Nokia N95.
Neither AT&T nor RIM is willing to comment on the allegation, though the delay would prove damaging to the smartphone maker's financial performance for the summer quarter by forcing it to rely on older, less popular models for all but the last few days of the period. [image via Engadget]
Filed under: iPhone, gadgets
Other story tags: AT&T, Nokia, BlackBerry, GPS, RIM, N95
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It just isn't ready.
I too wanted an iPhone, but didn't like the feature set and it's not available here in Australia. I'm a tech head and gadget freak, and I gleefully pounced upon an N95 and turned it inside out over two weeks, and it really grated with me. I hated the thing, for far too many reasons. Just seems rushed, complicated and significantly less than the sum of it's fantastic parts. So i sold it, bought an iPhone, pocketed the change, and have been happy since.
The only original thing the iphone brought to the table was including a gesture based touch screen, something the blackberry doesn't use.
Do you even know what you are saying?
If you read the article (I know, its hard some times), it says AT&T wants to move it back so they aren't releasing both at the same time, so they can maximize the value of both. Plus, if both will be popular, they'd need to hire more staff to cover the influx of people looking at either device at the same time.
It's all about the money.
This can't be true. The phone isn't ready, pure and simple. If RIM's device is ready now, they surely must benefit for getting as many as possible out the door pronto, into people's hands, in 2 year contracts, NOW!!
Where does it say it is ready NOW??? It just says it won't be released in June. And even if it was ready now, they may need to ramp up production to make sure they can cover all orders, rather then pulling the usual Apple stunt of having six available for sale and making everyone else wait 3 months.
So i sold it, bought an iPhone, pocketed the change, and have been happy since.
But you said it wasn't available in Australia. Where did you buy it from, then? And I'm assuming you had to hack it to work with an Australian carrier.
BTW, you know doing this steals money from Apple computer, as they rely on that kickback....er....monthly subsidy from the carriers to make a profit on the device, right?
instead i remember him referring to the Apple TV as 'a hobby'...