[Alain_A]

So will it be available 1 minute past midnight or.....?

Waiting to buy my K1

Remain to be seen

[cbvinh]

Yes actually they did announce it. They tweeted it and it was reported on the front page of most tech sites because the info came from BlackBerry mobile themselves. I'm not sure what you are trying to prove here but if you believe that 2 days before a device is available that the manufacturer has no clue where or won't advise their customer of where is okay then there is no point in further discussion.

For the U.K., they didn't have any carriers on board and announced availability on the same day of availability for Selfridges and CPW.

For Canada, they announced carriers in late April and pre-orders at "select" retailers. That select retailer was Rogers and that was announced on the day of.

For the U.S., one carrier, Sprint, was mentioned, but Sprint hasn't really announced. (And given Sprint's track record, I wouldn't count on them since they passed on the Z10, with rumor of waiting for the Z30, but basically stop carrying BB10 devices other than the Q10.) T-Mobile hasn't, but does support imported KEYone's. The email post says Amazon and Best Buy, both of which haven't announced anything yet. Given how things have transpired so far, it's reasonable to guess that there will be an announcement when the order pages go live on Amazon and Best Buy, not before.

I could be wrong. Maybe we'll here something tomorrow. I guess the Canadian release was the best so far, as far as pre-orders and orders, so be happy you're in Canada. You're fussing over something that's not going to affect you one iota.

[ltoncb]

Again, you only know that because someone posted an email in here. BlackBerry mobile has yet to state that on their website or publicly. So unless someone happened to be in these forums they have no clue.

Isn't the email the same one sent out to all that signed up on BlackBerryMobile's website for pre-registration. If so, complaints that the BBMobile marketing isn't communicating with potential customers to showed interest is rather odd.
Customers -> BBmobile " I'm interested"
BBmobile -> Customers " Look at Amazon and BestBuy on the 31st."

That is effective and will probably work extremely well. If BBMoible measured the email numbers and inference off of the pre-orders sequences in UK , Germany, and now Canada and deploys a reasonable number of phones at Amazon and BestBuy ... most folks should be able to order and get one shipped. ( The contest of who can get it shipped faster really isn't all that important to the long term successes, or not, of the phone. )

From the track record in UK, Germany , and what appears in Canada..... I don't think BBMobile has a gut of phones to sell. So broadcasting in some broad mass market campaign is rather pointless.

All BlackBerry has said to this point is unlocked on May 31 and Sprint later in the summer.

" 4/ The KEYone will be in-stock and available to purchase on May 31 here in the U.S., available through different retail channels "
https://twitter.com/SteveCistulli/st...08062489780224

Given Amazon.UK is a seller of the phone ( https://www.blackberrymobile.com/uk/) and Amazon is one of the larger retailers in the USA. Even if don't have the email that deduction doesn't require huge mental capacity. Folks who are looking will find.

Must of the angst in these forums is more so about being 'first' and 'instant gratification' than in real problems marketing a phone with a very narrow audience and modest production ramp up ( so 'just in time' the production instead of widely guess and making vastly too many phones ..... like BlackBerry did for years..... and got crushed doing that. )

Retail doesn't necessarily mean "show rooming". Amazon especially doesn't do that. The whole queue up in a physical store and walk out .... no that likely isn't coming at first. That's one reason why "day of launch" doesn't really make that much of a difference. Folks will just order on day one online.

[funkymixx]

Yep, I agree, lousy launch communication, Does TCL think we owe them something, lact of not even acknowledging any inquires officially pisses me of.

[funkymixx]

I agree, nothing ...TCL and Cistulli or whatever his name is sucks!!

[cbvinh]

Yep, I agree, lousy launch communication, Does TCL think we owe them something, lact of not even acknowledging any inquires officially pisses me of.

Huh? The email that's been mentioned is due to an inquiry and the response was from BlackBerry Mobile. The complaint is that they're not posting to the website yet.

Did you email them and they didn't respond?

[ltoncb]

They will not do a massive launch into US carrier stores until consumer faith has been restored. These buyers simply can't take the risk on a niche product with a rabid fan base.
....
Believe me, when there's significant demand you'll see the marketing muscle and retail presence in full force. (I do this for a living)

I don't think it is consumer faith. It is likely carrier faith as to why they'd want to stock this in the store. If this is a going to be a one month wonder where the sales dramatically fizzle after a 3-4 weeks on the market there is little good reason why the carriers should stock them in the physical stores.

if there is a narrow enterprise niche then those sales could be fulfilled online or a virtually hosted store ( e.g., Amazon will run one for you that ships stock out of their warehouses. )

It isn't that the fan base is rabid... it is the fan base is of limited size. There probably won't be "sales muscle" and "full force" trying to drive folks off of slab phones who want slab phones. Marketing should be far more focused on finding the folks who will consider this as a viable option than on trying to do "premium phone advertisizng" battles.

[SeanSolo]

Consumers will inform the actions of the buyers. If they see this lasts (and great point about the 4 week piece) then maybe they'll consider a future iteration.

Consumers view BlackBerry as dated technology and they've got to win them back first and foremost. Remember, every one of these last few handset releases has been touted as a "comeback" or "last stand".

[Troy Tiscareno]

So according to the "widespread" and "publicly available" knowledge, should I be able to walk into a Best Buy and get one on Wed?

Probably not. BB hasn't necessarily committed to stocking them in stores, but you'll be able to buy it online and/or order it from the store for later store pickup.

You need to remember that this is a niche phone with a very small market - you're just not going to have the same options for buying it as you would with more popular phones. That's where BB's phone business is today.

[oharamj]

There have been several reasonable business arguments made here over last couple hours - much appreciated!

I'm agreeing with an earlier comment that we should just let it go for now, and keep our eyes peeled.

[oharamj]

I agree, nothing ...TCL and Cistulli or whatever his name is sucks!!

That feels really unfair and uncalled for.

[Gomz]

There have been several reasonable business arguments made here over last couple hours - much appreciated!

I'm agreeing with an earlier comment that we should just let it go for now, and keep our eyes peeled.

One thing for sure at the end of this thread we will all wait on 5/31.

[consv93]

There is a CrackBerrian that has relatives that are managers at T-Mobile and AT&T. He said T-Mobile relative said "yes". AT&T said "no". Maybe just check T-Mobile instead.

Aren't you proving ray's point, that you shouldn't need to ask a relative who works for a phone company about how to buy a phone?

[usernamedsid]

Even Kevin did not post 2 day countdown picture on instagram. May 31 doesn't look promising.

[usernamedsid]

Also weekly ads are out for most of the retailers. No mention of BBK1

[cbvinh]

Aren't you proving ray's point, that you shouldn't need to ask a relative who works for a phone company about how to buy a phone?

Are you saying that BlackBerry Mobile will /never/ announce?

[hjc73734]

Are you saying that BlackBerry Mobile will /never/ announce?

Come on, answering a question with a question?

It's WHEN they announce thats bugging everyone. Its a day away. Everything should be in place. There's no need to be "certain". If distribution isn't in place by now it ain't going to be ready by May 31st.

That email is not official information. For all we know it could be fake. Is that how they want to have their news spread? Inexcusable!

[blackberry4life79]

Told yall this would happen. Glad I ordered my business techs the Pixel a month back. We have had zero problems with them. We are so relieved we did not have to be testers for BlackBerry and discover all their mistakes.

Posted via CB10

[TheBond]

Told yall this would happen. Glad I ordered my business techs the Pixel a month back. We have had zero problems with them. We are so relieved we did not have to be testers for BlackBerry and discover all their mistakes.

Posted via CB10

Glad you liked Pixels. I lasted exactly 3 days on one XL.
Unfortunately I need a PKB. Perhaps one day Google will make one for us, till then we need to be BlackBerry testers 👍

[JonCBK]

Since it was available on UK Amazon (and it sold out there, so was successful), I guess it will be available on US Amazon. While I'd like to walk into a wireless store and buy it and get it set up in same trip, if it is available on Amazon I don't really need anything else. (Yes that is one of the sad and impressive things about Amazon; you really don't need anything else.)

[donnation]

Has anyone heard from Kevin on this?

[JonCBK]

Following up, is this going to be a situation where scalpers buy up all the KeyOnes and then sell them for a profit? I mean the Blackberry KEYone is available on U.S. Amazon right now. It is just $869.

[SeanSolo]

Be dilligent, check Amazon tomorrow frequently. Order the phone. The end.

[world traveler and former ceo]

Just relax. Check tomorrow. It will be there.

Posted via CB10

[ltoncb]

It's WHEN they announce thats bugging everyone. Its a day away. Everything should be in place. There's no need to be "certain". If distribution isn't in place by now it ain't going to be ready by May 31st.

Yours and several others presumption here is that this is a 'brick and mortar' roll out. If they are primarily relying on web retailers ( Amazon and bestbuy.com ) then all that is necessary is that the phones are in the warehouses on the 31st. That's it. The managers at physical carrier retail stores won't know anything because they are not in the loop. Neither the managers at the physical BestBuy stores. They also are not initially in the loop. The store is simply just a "ship to location" delivery point.

Amazon has billions in server hardware that back stops its web site. There is no massive Blackberry rush that is going to crash their site which pre-orders might distribute out over time. If the phones are in the warehouse some human and/or robot will pick them up and box then as the orders come in. Done. Like Amazon doesn't ship millions of items per day anyway. And BestBuy.com isn't all that far behind. They move thousands phones per day anyway in their distribution system.

BlackBerry Mobile can get nation wide logistic scale by outsourcing to web retailers who already have USA nationwide scale. As long as the warehouses are stocked up early this week they can flip the switch on the 31st no problem.

If they only have enough to sell that closely matches their initial estimates of demand the "extra warning" before 31st does nothing. They aren't going to be able to sell what they don't have. More 'brick and mortar' sales sites just will dilute the supply even further.