We’ve known for a little while now that Visual VoiceMail for the BlackBerry Bold was coming to AT&T and it would appear that it will launch shortly as BlackBerry Visual Voicemail is now an option under AT&T subscribers account features list.
The interesting thing to notice is that the price for BlackBerry Visual Voicemail is $0.00. I don’t know if this will change when BlackBerry Visual Voicemail actually launches, but, I am guessing that it will not since visual voicemail is free on the iPhone.
I wonder how much longer Verizon will be able to charge for their BlackBerry Visual Voicemail, especially when their biggest competitor may offer it for free?
[Via BlackBerry News]
Visual voicemail should be free, and it should have been a standard feature a long time ago. The only reason the carriers have not adopted this for so long is because they want people to burn airtime checking all their voice messages.
Quite frankly, Visual Voicemail should have been a feature pioneered by RIM and offered for free on BB’s a long time ago…it would have been one more way for the BB brand to stand out in the market place, it would have fit very nicely with the BB tradition of being the mobile email leader, and it is a great practical tool for business use.
RIM should buy a company that specializes in visual voicemail and offer it for free on their models.
Thought,
RIM should’a, could’a, with the BB but we all know who put Visual voicemail on the fast track. I’d bet 90% of the hardware makers wish they should’a, could’a, would’a before a certain icon came into the industry and blew everyone’s doors off so badly that now 2+ years later the rest of the industry has yet to come up with a single competitive answer.
At this point RIM needs to push to move forward but not sure if that means going in revolutionary or evolutionary. RIM should follow Apple’s lead in drawing the line between device and service provider. IMO RIM is giving up important choices in features, functions, applications and control of their UI and software on their BB’s, Some of those choices but the service providers (as you point out above) are not being done for the good of the manufacture or the device owner.
It’s free on the iphone. Hopefully AT&T will carry that through on the BB. Still, I’m betting at least a $5 monthly fee for it when it’s finally implemented.