Based on our previous post, we know that Cingular has, at least in their business channel, released the BlackBerry Pearl. My question is, “Why Today?”
The Cingular BlackBerry Pearl is already a week late and has missed the biggest selling day of the year. What possibly could Cingular have gained by releasing today other than the belief, in my mind at least, that they are not just sloppy with distribution and generally being on the same page throughout the organization, but truly inept when it comes to product management in the area of release strategy?
It seems to me that Cingular should have waited until December 1st to after missing the November 21st launch that was leaked and Black Friday came and went without most people in the Cingular stores having a clue as to when the device would be available.
Remember that document that said that the BlackBerry Pearl was exclusive on T-Mobile until December 1st. They could have hidden behind that seeing how they truly still haven’t given an official date.
The fact that people are buying the Cingular BlackBerry Pearl today kind of makes a T-Mobile period of exclusivity a mute moot point which tells me that there was no reason for the Pearl not to have been available on the 21st and definitely not by the 24th, less a complete failure in Cingular’s distribution system, product marketing team, or product management team if not a combination of the three.
Saying that Cingular sucks because devices don’t come out when we want them to is one thing. If Cingular truly has the inability to get product out on time because of poor internal processes, which previous history tells us that they have, Cingular sucks has a whole new meaning.
It’s no wonder Verizon is about to over take them as the top dog mobile carrier in the U.S.
FYI, it’s moot point not mute point. 🙂
I love using “moot”.
OK Chuck and Steve, I corrected spelling. 🙂
Spelling aside, I think, Robb, you make some very good points. Even if Cingular’s plan all along was to release the BlackBerry Pearl today, which I tend to doubt, they should have done a better job at controlling, or, at least, trying to control spin surrounding the launch, or escape, as it may be.
Missing Black Friday by just three days, as you point out, just doesn’t make sense. Clearly T-Mobile doesn’t have an exclusive on the device until December 1 or we wouldn’t be talking about the Cingular BlackBerry Pearl release today. That being said, missing the largest selling day of the year in the United States by 3 days has to be seen as either a botched released or complete incompetence on the part of the program manager responsible for launching the Pearl. Either way, quite unacceptable from a company the size of and with the resources of Cingular.
It would appear from comments over on BBHub that the BlackBerry Pearl has been pulled from Cingular’s premier site.
Either Cingular didn’t mean to post the link, are already running out of product, or a combination of the two is just making my point that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing at Cingular and that they have no clue as to how to release product.
I have two questions for Cingular. How do you accidentally start selling stuff and have you taken a look at how well the Pearl is doing at T-Mobile lately?
What kind of Mickey Mouse operation are they running over there?
I was on the Cingular premier site and chatted with a rep on the live help page. t This is what the response was to my question about what happened to the Pearl posted this morning:
RoXXX: Welcome to Cingular Wireless Premier Support, my name is RoXXX. I am reading your question and will be right with you.
RoXXX: It was offered for pre-order in error, and was removed shortly after. However, it should be available by the end of next week at the latest.
The really sad thing is that this type if internal discombobulation within Cingular doesn’t surprise me that much.
Cingular will continue their behavior as long as they do not suffer any consequences for it. They probably won’t in this case.
Look at all of this pre-release hype…the folks at Cingular couldn’t ask for more pre-launch anticipation.
Bottom line: they’ll sell a ton of these regardless, and still feel pretty good about themselves.
It will be interesting to see the marketing campaign that Cingular puts behind the Pearl…and if it is nearly as good as the one they have for the BlackJack. Cingular does know how to do large scale marketing, and if they give the Pearl a really great marketing campaign, they can at least partially redeem themselves with all of us BB fans.
AS I previously stated, the pearl will be available to the public on December 1st, following a demonstration by cingular for the rep’s on November 30th in Manhattan. That is a fact, not conjecture. Friday morning, go crazy.
It will be ironic if after all this time, when the initial rumors were of the Dec 1 launch date, that it turns out to really be that time frame.
This only makes me wonder if Cingular wanted these rumors of an earlier release date out there…in spite of any criticism they are taking, the bottom line is that anticipation has increased.
You know what they say. Any plubicity is good plubicity.
I just got out of a Cingular store and the rep there said they were supposed to have the Pearl on Black Friday but then they pushed the release and then he said that he has no clue when they will be getting any.
You’re an idiot Robb. T-Mobile has exclusive rights to sell the Pearl until December first. Relax, you’ll get the pearl soon enough. Putz!!
The name calling is kind of childish but to your points, It does kind of look like that December 1st date will be the day. You may have noticed that I asked the question ‘why yesterday’ and followed up with reasons why dec. 1 made more sense.
The fact, remains, however, that Cingular did leak November 21st. This could have all been part of the master plan to kick the buzz machine into gear knowing like blogs like this would jump all over it and if so, I bit hook, line, and sinker.
One other thing, mistake or not, Cingular did sell BlackBerry Pearls yesterday, even if only for a while. Cingular may suck and soon lose their #1 spot as the biggest wireless provider in the nation, but, they are a multi-billion dollar company with a bunch of lawerys that would have never let the Pearl go on sale if they legally weren’t permitted to… Mistake or no mistake.
As far as me getting a Pearl soon, probably won’t be till summer time next year. I am with Verizon.
Cingular’s Pearl is out today and I just got mine.
It’s great looking, much better than the t-mo version.
Get over it Cingular haters……Cingular has it all.