RIM is rumored to be releasing its hottest handset, the BlackBerry Bold 9800 at an event with AT&T next week. It's destined to be an AT&T-exclusive, which is also chiming with some media noise about the Bold 9800 being RIM's "iPhone killer."
RIM's BlackBerry Bold 9800
Reuters is reporting a group of cell phone industry analysts are strongly hinting the Bold 9800 will launch at the upcoming RIM press event next Tuesday August 3rd in the morning, Eastern Standard Time. According to these informed folk, the timing is critical, and the sooner "they are going to say it is going to be available, the better," as the market appears primed for excellent sales. It's no coincidence that Apple's iPhone 4 launched just a few weeks ago, either.
Chinese BlackBerry Bold 9800 clone
What do we know about the 9800? It's the first device that'll be running RIM's new flavor of OS, BlackBerry 6 (bringing a faster webkit browser and new, sleeker look and feel to the UI, which has been looking clunky and old-fashioned compared to its Apple and Android rivals), and it will be similar to some previous incarnations of the BlackBerry, with a large touchscreen that slides vertically to reveal a physical keypad. Amusingly enough, given the fact that a big-shot news agency like Reuters is calling it a serious rival to the iPhone, there's some discussion online that a leaked demonstration video of the 9800 reveals that it may suffer from a similar "death grip" antenna effect like that reported to affect the iPhone 4.
Will Apple be nervous? Probably not. The iPhone has revolutionized the smartphone market, and the newest unit has been selling like hotcakes, despite the press furor around the phone's potential antenna performance issues. It's also been grabbing increasing numbers of business users (and even more so with the iPad), which is RIM's traditional stomping-ground--to such an extent that RIM's even been forced to appeal more and more to the consumer market. The 9800 is not an "iPhone killer," sorry Reuters.
Still, the market price of RIM's shares bumped up slightly today on the news, and the phone will certainly find good sales among BlackBerry enthusiasts, and consumers who are shy of Apple--assuming the 9800 hits the shelves at the right price (though its leaked off-contractretail price of $700 isn't very promising in this regard). The phone will debut on AT&T before hitting Canada and Europe later in the year.
COMMENTARY: Research in Motion, that's a name for you. Just doesn't fit with reality. RIM better get going and announce the release date, start a media and PR blitz and plug a special promotion to their existing BlackBerry owners, because the company needs a huge shot in the arm. The company is old-fashioned and slow to innovate to the touchscreen technology of the iPhone and Android-based smartphones.
I have been very critical of RIM, because both the Apple iPhone and Android phones are pecking away at its market share, which recently declined drastically (see previous post) and which a recent survey showed that as many as 40% of BlackBerry users polled were thinking or planning on switching to the iPhone. Not good news for RIM.
The new BlackBerry Bold 988 design reminds me a lot of the Palm Pre which unfortunately never got any attraction in the marketplace. HP bought out Palm earlier this year just for the operating system. Does this mean HP will be coming out with a mobile device of their own? A new iPhone or iPad "killer"?
If there is going to be an iPhone killer it will be from Android OS smartphones, which recently surpassed the Apple iPhone in unit sales during the month of May 2010. Finally, Apple is getting some competition. I never thought Google could do it, but Schmidt, Larry and Sergey have proven everybody wrong, although their Nexus One smartphone went down in flames.
If there ever is an opportunity to grab a piece of the smartphone market and stop the iPhone's momentum, it is now. Apple recently took a huge PR hit when Consumer Reports refused to pass the new Apple iPhone 4 because of their antenna reception problem. Jobs called it "a total crap", and gave any iPhone owner with a reception problem an instant "fix" -- a new bumper. I hope that decision does not come back to haunt Jobs, because they have sold over 3 million iPhone 4's and a total recall would cost $1.5 billion according to some estimates.
The fact that there is already a Chinese knock-off of the rumored Blackberry Bold 9800, does not surprise me. They already have one for the Iphone 3, and before long, an iPhone 4 knockoff will be on the streets. I love those Chinese knockoff artists.
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