 | |||||||||||||
| | | |||||||||||
| |
|
| | |||||||||
| | | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| ||||
| | | ||
| | | | |
| | | ||
| ||||
| ||||
| | | ||
| | | | |
| | | ||
| ||||
 | ||||
| | | ||
| | | | |
| | | ||
| ||||
| 30 Jul 2008 - The Blackberry Bold - Mid August Launch, Optus, Telstra and Vodafone | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Down a dark ally along George St in the City, technology, lifestyle and business journalists made their way to a bar for the middle of the day launch of the much anticipated Blackberry Bold. The opening presentation described the device as Sleek - Fast - Powerful, and that it is. Harnessing the HSDPA speeds of the advanced 3G networks we have here in Australia, the Blackberry Bold (Smartphone) will be the most feature packed Blackberry yet. For a device without an official 'on sale' date, there certainly was plenty of them on display, and plenty more in use by RIM staff, PR people and the odd member of the press. If you haven't seen the pictures yet, the BOLD is a full QWERTY keyboard device similar to the Curve, but certainly a little bigger (wider) which I think will not help it hit the mass market RIM are looking for. Wait for the Blackberry Flip phone later in the year for that. RIM COO Denis Kavelman made his way down under for the launch, putting a real mark of respect, and importance on the Australian Market. Apple have absolutely dominated the Smartphone press of late and RIM (Blackberry) need to jump on the back of that and expand out of the enterprise or corporate environment. That seems to be the focus. While he wouldn't be drawn on the number of Blackberry users in Australia, Kavelman would repeat the 16 million number for worldwide users. And at the same time admit Australia's penetration was not high enough. Interestingly Kavelman confirmed that in the month of the iPhone launch last year in the USA, blackberry sales GREW for every carrier, basically the iPhone was able to draw people in to the thought of having a smartphone, and for some the Blackberry presented a more compelling option. For me, the reasons the BOLD will be THE next step for Blackberry users, let alone anyone else, are as follows:
Expect it in stores mid August. Here's the Marketing Blurb from RIM about the New Blackberry BOLD: The sophisticated new interface and newly designed full-QWERTY keyboard enable quick and precise typing of email, SMS/MMS and instant messages using BlackBerry® Messenger, Windows Live™ Messenger, Google® Talk and Yahoo!® Messenger. Customers can also download and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the smartphone using the preloaded DataViz® Documents to Go® software suite. Featuring a next-generation 624 MHz mobile processor, the BlackBerry Bold enables faster Internet browsing, file downloading and video streaming*. The enhanced high performance browser gives mobile users a high speed web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction. The BlackBerry Bold smartphone provides a rich multimedia experience with a powerful media player for music, videos and pictures, 2-megapixel camera with digital zoom and video recording**, externally accessible microSD/SDHC memory card slot for expanded storage*** and easy synchronization support for iTunes® digital music collections using the new BlackBerry® Media Sync application****. From OPTUS: The BlackBerry Bold can be purchased from Optus for $10 per month over 24 months in conjunction with the BlackBerry $79 Cap plan**. Business customers who would like to pre-register their interest in the Blackberry Bold can do so via the Optus website www.optusbusiness.com.au/bold from 1 August 2008. From Telstra: Telstra will be offering the new BlackBerry Bold smartphone for $0 upfront to business customers from late September and customers can register their interest from today via our website or by calling 1800BUSINESS (Nothing official from Vodafone, however a Vodafone rep was at the launch - so it will come!) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Share your thoughts: add your comment: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||
| | | ||
| | | | |
| | | ||
| ||||