OS / General Software Updates, CDMA, etc

Hi -- I've never owned a smartphone but I am somewhat skilled in the general field of computing. I appreciate any answers to these questions!

1) I understand that CDMA is a communication protocol, but I haven't been able to find the 'why it's important' information. Am I correct in understanding that most current phones do NOT support CDMA, and that phones that will soon feature CDMA hardware capability will be better because of increased data throughput? Yes/No?

2) If YES to above, will the Blackberry 9000 and/or the Blackberry 9500 feature CDMA capability?

3) If YES to above, is CDMA offered by only some carriers and not others?

4) Obviously Blackberries support software updates on applications, and patches on OS'es, but what is the overall extent of the 'upgrade' capability of blackberries? Would the new 9000 and 9500 support full firmware re-flashes?

5) Are BB's 'locked' to the primary version number of the OS their purchased with? If BB OS 5.0 comes out, will the 9000 or 9500 be capable of having it installed? I suppose I'm just confused when I see people discussing the merits of the supposed 4.7 OS and whether or not they'd wait to get a 9500 instead of a 9000. Wouldn't the 9000 be able to load 4.7 as well when it is released?

6) Lastly, I know the iPhone will still probably be able to boast a better browser for the foreseeable future, but should the BB Browser or a 3rd Party browser come out, will they be able to be installed on the 9000 and 9500?

Obviously with questions 4-6 I'm just trying to ascertain the (software) 'uprgradeability' of BB devices. If OS 5.0 included some features that required hardware on some future unreleased phone, I'd presume those features would just be disabled or inaccessible when installing it on an older model.

Thanks again for any insight.
-Austin

1. Yes CDMA Generally has fasted Data Speeds

2. The 9000 will be gsm with any luck CDMA by 2009, The Thunder from whats been published is a CDMA Device

3.Sprint, Verizon and Alltel to name the biggest carriers are CDMA in the United States

4 not to technical

5.Yes OS are able to be upgrade to the latest version once the carrier releases it for an update

6. Although the blackberry doesnt have the browser like the iphone it is being improved on the 9000 and the thunder there have been several reviews on the new browser.

****Anyone please correct me if I am wrong*****

Thanks for the fast reply.

If the 9000 will initially be GSM, but could get CDMA in 2009, does that mean that if I ended up getting the 9000 next month, CDMA could be 'turned on' in 2009? Or would I have to swap to a newer 9000 device?

So if 6 months from now some 'new/amazing' browser comes out, I can just install it / overwrite the browser that came with the 9000 or 9500 (tell me if that's incorrect).

Thanks again.

1. The 9000 coming out on CDMA is way off for now, if it does come out on cdma I wouldnt want to put a time frame on it, because things always change.

2.The new browser will be available via updates, official updates from the carriers and such...........but those dont happen all that often.........but in a nutshell eventually the browser will be updates

Originally Posted by suntracker

Thanks for the fast reply.

If the 9000 will initially be GSM, but could get CDMA in 2009, does that mean that if I ended up getting the 9000 next month, CDMA could be 'turned on' in 2009? Or would I have to swap to a newer 9000 device?

So if 6 months from now some 'new/amazing' browser comes out, I can just install it / overwrite the browser that came with the 9000 or 9500 (tell me if that's incorrect).

Thanks again.

Again going back to what morales0416 said
"3.Sprint, Verizon and Alltel to name the biggest carriers are CDMA in the United States"

So just for example if you purchase a 9000 from Verizon(which it may not be out until 2009 for verizon) it only runs on the CDMA network. All the other carriers like AT&T run on a GSM network. the only way to switch would be to switch carriers, which would either result in you paying an early termination fee or being lucky enough to afford a 2 phones :)

To clarify i have only heard that the new 9000 will only be offered by AT&T here in the US when it comes out. Then possibly later by other carriers maybe in 2009.

The 9500 Thunder/Storm will be sold by Verizon when it comes out. I have not heard anything that it will be sold by other carriers?

As for the OS updates, again when your carrier releases a new version it can be put on by using the desktop manager. Depending on what changes they make only some things will be updated on the OS.

Another example i have a Verizon 8830 i just recently updated to 4.2.2.196. I was running 4.2.2.110???(i am just guessing there because i don't really remember) Now not really sure what they updated on the OS but i hear that they changed the ability to recognize a 8gb memory card instead of 4gb.

I hope this helps clear some things up.
*****anyone can chime in if i am wrong***** thanks