The BlackBerry Bold, which will sell for $299 via AT&T in the U.S. starting next Tuesday, has just seen a second price cut on the Rogers branded model from Best Buy up in Canada.
The Rogers BlackBerry Bold started off at $399.99, soon after dropped to $299.99, and now through Nov. 2th, will only set you back $199 at Best Buy and they throw in a $50 gift card essentially making the price 150 bucks.
All this makes me wonder how long it will take for AT&T and / or Best Buy to drop the price of the BlackBerry Bold once it becomes available next week? I think the Bold will do well with business users, however, $300 is pretty steep for consumers especially when the iPhone is only $199 and will be sitting literally a few feet away from the Bold.
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My guess, the retail uptake on the Bold was zip.. which pretty much everyone said it was going to be. Retail Blackberry’s compete with the JesusPhone (@$199), executives that work for a Bank don’t buy there BB’s @ Best Buy.
The good news is the pricing point for the new Curve will have to be sub 149$ now.
The iphone might be physically “sitting literally a few feet away from the Bold.” But most one knows the iPhone is technically years ahead of any Blackberry from RIM. The iPhone is a powerful handheld computer where Blackberry’s are more terminal like relying on the RIM servers.
@onoshedidnt -You are crazily wrong on this one. Yes RIM relies a lot on the cloud. But thats not a disadvantage. It just a smarter use of bandwidth and processing power. iPhone has many limitations as well like background processes unable to run concurrently with the main process. These limitations are not there on blackberry. Bold is an excellent device with a good processor and excellent cell phone stack. Yes RIM is hedging their bets by releasing bold, storm and upcoming curve II (javelin) @ the same time but I think that gives users on different carriers and cell phone tech a wide variety of options. I think if RIM executes well they would essentially take the wind out of iPhone.
Eshwar S
There is nothing that will take the “wind out of the iPhone” The iPhone has more than proven it’s years ahead of the rest of the competition. The iPhone, a powerful handheld computer with well written, elegant OS will continue to beat anything that the competition try’s to throw at it. One look at the UI shows the growing disparagy between the iPhone and everything else. Sure the BB’s can do SMS and email but after that the app’s are few and far between. When the system is built for SMS and email a cloud is a acceptable thing to rely on. When your talking real world app’s found on the iPhone a cloud is not going to cut it. Two different idea’s, both work, in different ways with varying end user experience. But when it comes to evaluating the cost for the hardware the iPhone is a powerful handheld computer. Blackberry’s are more terminal like relying on the RIM servers. They are technically years apart.
I saw a model of the Bold on display at my Best Buy, and I must say it looked very nice. The construction felt solid, and the new finish on the back is very classy.
It’s a shame the unit hasn’t really been given a proper launch here in the states, but it may still do well enough for those who want ATT.
No physicial Keyboard equals crap. Iphone is lightyears behind what it should have been. It should have had a 12 megapixle camera, a real gps etc, and a 320 gb hard drive. All this technology is available and cheap. They are releasing underpowered crap just like they always do so that we go out and buy the 8gb and then the 16, 32 and so on. Who needs a 2mb camera what is this 1999? My htc tytn does ten times more than an iphone. At least the bold doesn’t crash on you every time you try and do something!