Research in Motion’s stock price (RIMM) closed down about 10% yesterday on news that, among other things, BlackBerry Pearl Flip sales, thus far, have been tepid at best.
To make a long story short, RIM, in my opinion, botched the release of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip by setting the price about $100 too high. This device shouldn’t cost more than $50 and, to be completely honest, should probably be free with a long term contract.
The fact that this thing will cost you 200 bucks, the same as an iPhone before a $50 mail-in rebate, simply gives it no chance to truly compete. The Pearl Flip isn’t even as compelling as some of the other BlackBerrys out right now that are $50 or cheaper with contracts.
RIM simply has to get better with BlackBerry releases…
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I didn’t think it would do at that well out of the gate knowing that the Bold and Storm are just around the corner, and on better networks. In my opinion, the problem here is that they have too many releases too close to each other, allowing no room for the flip pearl to breath and work on its own. We see the commercials for the Storm and someone is going to consider buying the Flip? I believe that is part of the reason and a mistake on RIM’s behalf.
I personally did not like the performance of the phone either, and may have purchased one if the browser could have rendered the pages faster and effectively. Part of blame can also go to the carrier for the lack of a 3G network. Even with wifi, the rendering was somewhat sluggish.
I also haven’t seen much advertised for the flip either. Everyone know the target market for the phone, just hasn’t received the attention the Storm has. I’ve seen more advertising for the Bold and it hasn’t even been released here in the US yet.
I guess every company has to have a flop, and for RIM, it’s their flip. The flip is a flop.
Sorry for the grammatical errors above…suretype sometimes drives me nuts.
I don’t think RIM is in the right spot to make BlackBerry a budget brand. This isn’t a pre-paid Nokia regardless of build quality. I understand that a lot of people want to make cheap-looking BlackBerries, well, cheap, but the hefty price is more of a value added thing to the already hefty and proven BlackBerry line-up. More options for the power user — less for the “NEW2BB” purchaser.
My Wife would love one of these phones regardless of the price. I’m a BlackBerry Curve user. She would get the regular Pearl but likes the flip factor. Those are the type of people that’d buy this phone — not the teen looking to ditch their $69 Motorola. Value added, that’s today’s word.
The Flip was never intended to be a killer “gotta have” device like the Storm or even the Bold. It is designed to be the device for people who like the flip form factor and who would normally NEVER buy a Blackberry to get the BB experience. Well now, when that person goes to renew their contract, they have the option – and it only gets compelling if the carrier offers a cheap email plan. So anyone who expected this device to come out of the gate smoking hot is way off base. It’s a little too early to call the Flip a Flop. My bet is it ends up being a solid seller over time, but the Storm, Bold, Javelin, Magnum, etc will be the big sellers.
The real idea for RIM’s success with the Flip is to drive the elasticity of demand for data by offering cheap email plans. Carriers get a higher value customer who would have never bought a data service before and the customer gets a value added service with BB email. The value proposition of the BB is superior to any other platform. (Yes, that includes iPhone too – just ask AT&T about what the awesome browser and lack of compression is doing to their 3G network. Not much value to the carrier if forced to make large capital investment because of one data intensive device.)