Okay, in the Toronto area I visited several malls: Eaton Centre, Dufferin Mall and Sherway Gardens yesterday. I wanted to test a demo 9900.
Every store I visited Bell, Telus, and Rogers, there was no working demos. At all stores, the reps commented sales have been brisk and almost sold-out of first batch. Most BB users are paying for the phone with no contract. Wow, huge bent up demand for first day of launch.
I know this is anecdotal evidence. But it's positive for RIM.
One of the reps at Rogers, Dufferin Mall commented his colleague would be in today with his working 9900 for me to test between 9am to 5pm. Wish me luck....
In Montreal, most Rogers stores still haven't got 9900s yet. I went to two different stores before I was told that another store had multiple in stock.
Rogers rep was no show but over at WirelessWave, rep let me use his BB 9900. Oh, it's a sweet phone. Best BB ever!
Bold loyalists can be proud. Best keyboard on any smartphone and built with quality materials. Rep indicated he's dropped his phone 3x already and no issues.
The local Best Buy (Ottawa) has the 9900 on display.
I'm guessing most ppl don't realize its a fully functional demo and not a dummy phone since it is just a black screen unless you come up to it and hit the unlock.
The other fully functional phones (Samsung Galaxy, Xperia X10, another one I don't remember) have a flashy video loop running to let you know that it isn't a dummy.
