[Oilersboy]

this is story is from blackberrycool.com




A BlackBerryCool.com contributor James, recently asked me how the major BlackBerry sites get their hands on pre-release devices. I thought I would give a quick explanation of the many ways it happens.

Leaked from companies
BlackBerry devices that have not yet hit the market, such as the BlackBerry Niagara, are floating around various RIM partner companies. They require these devices in order to build software for them. Sometimes, a company employee may get their hands on this device and leak the information to the blogosphere.

All companies that work with RIM are under an incredibly strict legal agreement to not release any information about the device. When this is broken, there could be harsh penalties and a possible end to the business relationship.

I heard a rumor that RIM once tracked down a leaked device source based on the type of wood grain seen in the leaked picture. The employee was immediately fired and the company had to seriously review its IT department.

Leaked from consumers
When the BlackBerry Storm first appeared on the Internet, the kid who made the video asked for money from the blogosphere. He approached several sites and asked for money in exchange for an exclusive. Although I have heard of sites paying for leaks, these sorts of things are usually distributed for free. The reasons for this are:

�It�s really hard to keep a great secret.
�It�s not obvious what these leaks are worth from a site owner perspective.
�When there is payment there is a paper trail. Again, leaks are illegal.
Marketing ploys and planned leaks

It�s sometimes intended for information to �leak.� Take for example the BlackBerry Storm when it was launching on Verizon. There were a ton of leaks including internal emails explaining the global features of the device. The leaks got to be so many so close to launch day that it was likely that one of Verizon�s Page Ranking firms was using the viral factor to spread interest.

eBay

Devices will sometimes show up on eBay before launch. This could be because someone may have gotten a device in one of the above manners, and chose to get as much money as possible for it. Take for example, the BlackBerry Bold was being sold on eBay 2 weeks before the launch date. It went for upwards of $1000 by the time it sold. I�m not sure if the buyer ever received a device because the seller�s rating was a 2.

There are other ways that a device can be leaked but that sums up the major ones.

The above information is not approved or verified by RIM. This is just my own personal experience that is based on discussions with various bloggers and companies.

[Cowadin]

/rename to "how devices get leaked"

answer to "why the release date is unknown?" - they haven't told us yet.

[sarfrazfamily]

^^^^^ I agree with above! lol!! change the name

and the answer as well because they havent said!

[jbinbi]

As someone who has worked in sales and marketing in the high tech marketplace for the past 28 years, I can give an idea of release dates:

First off, they are target dates. Internally, dates on products I have rolled out given to me from the VP of Engineering have been as cryptic as 'when we release it to you is when you get it' (didn't go over well at the operational meeting of all VPs) to hard fast dates that they stake their careers on.

Depending upon the feature/bugs that are around at some date where everything has to be frozen so it can be released to manufacturing to build a gazillion of the things depends upon whether or not the company will hit the date. No product is really ever ready at the target date, it's all a compromise as to what it has vs. what didn't make it in, vs. how serious certain bugs are.

For instance, the SW department may know that there is a memory leak that will cause the phone to have to be rebooted once a week for casual users, once a day for super power users. Do they release the firmware with that known, or spend 2 more weeks trying to fix it?

So some product manager who has a target date to freeze everything to meet a release date has to look at that target date of what the phone has vs. it's specs, and bugs, and make the call of release or delay.

Anyway, my 2 cents.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

The reason the release date of the 9630 is unknown is this: Officially the device does NOT exist. How can there be a release date for a device that technically doesn't exist? There can't. There you go, all done. All of the other stuff in the first post has nothing to do with why there isn't a known release date.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[ndnoutlaw]

Man and this whole time I imagined kevin and the other genius' doing a 'mission impossible' scene....

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com