For some strange reason than I cannot even begin to comprehend, AT&T decided to release the BlackBerry Bold on today of all days. There is that little presidential election taking that is expected to have well over 130 million people casting ballots, so, good luck AT&T on capturing any news cycles beyond gadget blogs… Brilliant marketing move…
Even though the BlackBerry Bold was just released today, it really isn’t the new BlackBerry everyone is talking about. The BlackBerry Storm is the device that really has people excited and rumor has it that it will be out in the next couple of weeks or so. Don’t get me wrong, the BlackBerry Bold will do extremely well on AT&T, but, I think that missed marketing opportunity and price will keep it from having BlackBerry Pearl / BlackBerry Curve type appeal.
That being said, I believe that if Verizon is smart about things, the BlackBerry Storm will cost less than the BlackBerry Bold. Waaaay Less… And if it does it will absolutely sell like mad.
Let’s face it, every BlackBerry going forward, especially those on AT&T, will be compared to the iPhone. Whether they should or should not be is debatable, however, the simple truth is that they will be and RIM and the carriers that sell BlackBerry devices need to be intimately aware of this.
The BlackBerry Bold costs you $399 up front. You could walk out of the store with two iPhones for this price. It will be hard for consumers to shell out that kind of cash for a BlackBerry when the iPhone is sitting right next to it, and, because of Apples marketing machine, seems way cooler than, than any BlackBerry ever has.
This is where Verizon being smart and playing their cards right presents a huge opportunity with the BlackBerry Storm.
Verizon should set the price of the BlackBerry Storm at about $199. They could probably get away with $299 with a $100 mail-in rebate, however, keeping out of pocket costs below 200 bucks in the store would have people lining up to get BlackBerry Storms during the holiday season.
As cool as the iPhone is, most reviews I’ve read that compare the iPhone to the BlackBerry Storm say that the Storms touch screen wins hands down. Tie that to the Verizon’s strength and and speed of network and you get a device that competes for the iPhone consumer that doesn’t want to switch to AT&T.
The thing is with Verizon subscribing BlackBerry users is, once you get them, you rarely lose them. Verizon should keep the thought of years and years of loyal, high monthly plan paying, BlackBerry users in mind when they determine how much they should subsidize the BlackBerry Storm for.
Robb, I think that you are dead on. I believe the Vodafone is completely subsidizing the price of the GSM Storm with a long term contract and Verizon would be wise to do something similar here although you probably wouldn’t see free becasue Verizon doesn’t do 3 year contracts.
I hope that I am wrong but I think that The Storm will cost at least as much if not more then the Bold. Verizon never makes anything inexpensive…
Cost less and a better device.
Well, I could sure use the Storm right now, and probably would be willing to toss $300+ at it right now after my Pearl crapped out and died last night. Never realized how dependent I was on that damn thing.
Anyway, yeah, it would be nice if they made it price competitive. Somewhat silence the critics if it performs as well. I took a look at the Bold today and it’s just too big for my taste. Feels solid, but just too damn big for my taste. And at $299, I don’t think that’s going to help it’s chances. I thought the Curve was somewhat of a waffle (I use a Pearl, so you’ll have to forgive me)…not sure how to describe the Bold.
There is an AT&T store next door to my office so I went over to check out the Bold. They didn’t have any devices but did have the demo unit. OMG!!! it is so big. It is like way bigger than my Curve.
Other than being huge, what does it do that I can’t do on my Blackberry Curve.
Verizon can’t afford to lost customers to AT&T for the iPhone. They should come in at least $249 out the door
The Bold does simultaneous voice+data, as well as Wifi. Will the Storm support simultaneous voice+data and Wifi?
I hope they do I have my Bold on Hold. But its only on hold until this friday. I have to wait for the Storm.
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted but I’ve read everyday via my RSS feed. I really hope this is true for the Storm. I must say that I was skeptical of the device upon first hearing of it. But I might actually give it a try if it will in fact sell near the $200 range. I love the individual keys that my Curve 8330 offers but am curious to play with the Storm. Even though my NE2 isn’t up for another year… if this price is near $200 I might get myself an early Christmas present!
Robb: you are right…it would be a great marketing move by VZW to market the Storm at a lower price point than the Bold.