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AT&T to stop selling non-3G devices

by on10 September 2008

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RIM seems unhappy with delay of BlackBerry Bold

More details are starting to leak out regarding AT&T’s delayed release of the BlackBerry Bold. It seems that some of the excuses and reports of the Bold being delayed by additional fixes in response to AT&T technical acceptance testing, while true, only seem to be part of the story.

Moles are suggesting to us that AT&T had told RIM that going forward it was no longer going to accept any new devices that were not 3G ready and AT&T wanted a 3G BlackBerry product from RIM. At the time reports suggest that RIM had no real intention of building or designing a 3G BlackBerry for a variety of reasons.

Still, sources suggest that the concept and project to build and design the BlackBerry Bold were initiated by AT&T’s request for a high-end 3G BlackBerry device. It seems that the non-3G stance seems to be solid because AT&T has not moved to offer either the Javelin or Kickstart due to the lack of 3G support.

AT&T continues to push RIM to deliver a version of the BlackBerry OS on the Bold that is bug-free and stable and this is why AT&T has continued to delay the release of the Bold. In the meantime, AT&T continues to sell iPhone after iPhone where they seem to be making a lot of cash.

The bottom line is that RIM has never done a 3G BlackBerry before and there was bound to be some pain in the development and handling of the 3G addition to the Bold. Still, AT&T remains one of BlackBerry’s more important carriers and, strained relationship or not, they need to launch this device.

We suspect that RIM will continue to be treated like this by AT&T while the release of the Storm is upcoming. AT&T is not sure, along with everyone else, how the Storm will do in sales when compared to the iPhone, but it does seem that many BlackBerry users on Verizon are excited about the ability to get the iPhone-like BlackBerry Storm by sheer virtue of the fact that they want an iPhone, but can’t get one on Verizon.

Nonetheless, the saga of the continued delayed release has caused some hard feelings on both sides, it would appear; and while time will heal most wounds, good sales of the Bold might be the best cure to get RIM and AT&T on the same page again.

Last modified on 10 September 2008
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