[lnichols]

Maybe they realized that the majority of the world, or the US for that matter, doesn't care about LTE yet (the Saturday Night live skit I think mocked this perfectly) and that holding up an entire line of phones for a network technology without a huge footprint is pointless. Just get an HSPA+ 42 Mbps out on T-Mobile and I'll buy it the day it is released. LTE is going to be a global roaming mess for a long time and HSPA+ works just fine for me.

[MoolahMitch]

Maybe they realized that the majority of the world, or the US for that matter, doesn't care about LTE yet (the Saturday Night live skit I think mocked this perfectly) and that holding up an entire line of phones for a network technology without a huge footprint is pointless. Just get an HSPA+ 42 Mbps out on T-Mobile and I'll buy it the day it is released. LTE is going to be a global roaming mess for a long time and HSPA+ works just fine for me.

I am with you on that one but I believe that Apple are waiting on the same chip for their next iPhone iteration. Either way it will be interesting when the first phone(s) are released.

[TechAlberta]

And they have to realize that, better phone or not, they have to market and position it better..

[Resist28]

A current Bold with the BB10 OS would be the baddest phone on the planet. But they are going to have to change something, if only for the sake of marketing....

i agree, i will be waiting for the first bb10 phone with a full keyboard. I would personally like to see a bold type phone with a larger screen. Problem with the bold is that it doesnt stand out enough from all the cheapy qwerty phones as far as appearance goes and the none techies dont really know whats under the hood. i think RIM is right in releasing the london first.

Whereabouts in ab?

[Zirak]

great, now i really dont know whether to pull the trigger now on a 9900 or wait another 9 months...or a year for a qwerty.

[travaz]

I am quite happy with my VZW 3G but the public wants 4G LTE cause they are beating it to death on thier marketing. I read a great article about how and why 4G LTE sucks battery. I will try and find the link but it was very interesting and the point of the whole story was there wasnt a whole lot they could do with battery tech to improve it. For RIM to hit a home run with the general public (not crackberry fans) it has to be (ok dont flame me) "Android or IOS like" to sell. We are not going to get a 9930 4G LTE BB10 in the first go round. They need to push to the larger market and bite into andriod share. The current OS 7's are not taking people in droves away from droid, so it needs to be Droid like to win. I can wait a bit fot the BB10 Bold. Make a winner get strong than take care of me. I found the link on 4G LTE and batteries
Page 5 - What is LTE? | ExtremeTech
another good article
http://gigaom.com/mobile/why-lte-suc...ttery-that-is/

[the_sleuth]

VZW and here in Canada (Rogers, Telus, Bell) are all trumpeting LTE for the same reasons PC makers trumpet the latest Windows OS. It's all to drive hardware sales. And with LTE, if you're in a good coverage, urban, area. then I would think you don't need a cable/DSL IP provider for internet. It can all be bundled into one plan. Right now, this could be done with HSPA+. There have been earlier adopters of all-in-one plans. I think more consumers will opt for this option if there are savings. With LTE, there could be other offerings: TV/cell/internet. Time Warner and Comcast might see more competitors in their markets.

[avt123]

VZW and here in Canada (Rogers, Telus, Bell) are all trumpeting LTE for the same reasons PC makers trumpet the latest Windows OS. It's all to drive hardware sales. And with LTE, if you're in a good coverage, urban, area. then I would think you don't need a cable/DSL IP provider for internet. It can all be bundled into one plan. Right now, this could be done with HSPA+. There have been earlier adopters of all-in-one plans. I think more consumers will opt for this option if there are savings. With LTE, there could be other offerings: TV/cell/internet. Time Warner and Comcast might see more competitors in their markets.

LTE isn't in my area yet, but it is a little further south of my county. If I can get these speeds all the time, I will definitely consider dropping my comcast internet.

[southlander]

VZW and here in Canada (Rogers, Telus, Bell) are all trumpeting LTE for the same reasons PC makers trumpet the latest Windows OS. It's all to drive hardware sales.

Yeah. Reminds me of PCs where people think they need a quad core processor, not just a dual core or whatever, just to browse Facebook and use Office. Specs do sell devices even if the rationale is not sound. We have no VZW LTE where I am yet. But when I am in the VZ store I hear the reps telling folks they need 4G so they can use it when it rolls out. Never mind the fact that many users would do fine with 3G.... indefinitely.

RIM needs all LTE to market these phones.

[tack]

Europe is going LTE also. It is not just the US.

[addicted44]

This would be great news. The other great aspect of it would be that it would solidify once and for all, how important removing the co-CEOs was. Lets ignore the fact that while everything done under the co-CEOs was delayed, the first major release after them was ahead of schedule. This would also prove that they were simply lying through their teeth, to protect their backsides, when they blamed the delay on lack of access to a chip, and indeed it was due to delays in OS10 development.

[BEARD GANG]

News just out that the iphone 5 will be releasing in sept/oct round same time as the 4s was released... Thats means BB phones will be in direct competition with the iphone. samsung are clever for releasing the s3 earlier to avoid this. RIM needs to get these phones out after the s3 and before the iphone to have a chance

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

News just out that the iphone 5 will be releasing in sept/oct round same time as the 4s was released... Thats means BB phones will be in direct competition with the iphone. samsung are clever for releasing the s3 earlier to avoid this. RIM needs to get these phones out after the s3 and before the iphone to have a chance

Doubt that BB10 devices are going to be any competition for the iPhone.
Most consumers are not going to care that BB10 devices are being release... unless these devices can do something that the iPhone or Android phones can not. Face it Android will have a couple of devices with better hardware (no way to beat them there) and Apple will have a better ecosystem (and better marketing).

Now if it is a stable devices, and is inexpensive (has to cost LESS than an iPhone - hope the PlayBook taught them that lesson at least) it should slowly reverse the erosion of RIM's marketshare, and keep RIM in the game to allow them to slowly rebuild the brand. But to expect an overnight sales phenomena just because RIM has a new OS, is being a little delusional.

Now it they were to announced the new BlackBerry was an approved Kindle Device and came with a one year PRIME subscription...

[BEARD GANG]

Doubt that BB10 devices are going to be any competition for the iPhone.
Most consumers are not going to care that BB10 devices are being release... unless these devices can do something that the iPhone or Android phones can not. Face it Android will have a couple of devices with better hardware (no way to beat them there) and Apple will have a better ecosystem (and better marketing).

Now if it is a stable devices, and is inexpensive (has to cost LESS than an iPhone - hope the PlayBook taught them that lesson at least) it should slowly reverse the erosion of RIM's marketshare, and keep RIM in the game to allow them to slowly rebuild the brand. But to expect an overnight sales phenomena just because RIM has a new OS, is being a little delusional.

Now it they were to announced the new BlackBerry was an approved Kindle Device and came with a one year PRIME subscription...

Yeh thats true, but for RIM this BB10 is all about them getting with the competition and with the iphone releasing so near its gonna be damn hard. But then again everyone will want the latest specs like quad core even if they cant fully use them, and the rumoured BB london is going to be dual core LOL ... i dont want to see RIM flop again

[TechAlberta]

Apple's weakness, if they have one, is price. They have to continue the "cool" factor to justify the premium they charge. I think there is space in the market if BlackBerrys can come in at 15-25% cheaper, with similar specs. That would be a nice niche...

[lnichols]

I just hope that they don't show it in May and still say it won't be out till late 2012. That would be a bad way to do things IMHO. Not only give to the competition what you are going to do, but not doing it in a shore amount of time will just frustrate BB fans like the Playbook did. They really need to be more Apple-like with releases and just shut their mouth till the unveiling, then tell everyone you can buy them a couple weeks later.

[berklon]

I just hope that they don't show it in May and still say it won't be out till late 2012. That would be a bad way to do things IMHO. Not only give to the competition what you are going to do, but not doing it in a shore amount of time will just frustrate BB fans like the Playbook did. They really need to be more Apple-like with releases and just shut their mouth till the unveiling, then tell everyone you can buy them a couple weeks later.

The problem with that is there are plenty of people who don't believe RIM has anything coming out anytime soon or at all that will compare to the competition... so they just give up and move to the competition.

I hear this at work all the time. People are jumping ship to Andriod/iPhone because they haven't seen anything from RIM. They think their new phones will just be another rehash of the BB7 devices... which were a rehash of BB6, and BB5, etc. They've been fooled enough and want proof.

[q649]

Apple's weakness, if they have one, is price. They have to continue the "cool" factor to justify the premium they charge. I think there is space in the market if BlackBerrys can come in at 15-25% cheaper, with similar specs. That would be a nice niche...

$70B in the bank says that Apple's pricing model has worked extremely well for them so far.

[Rootbrian]

Awesome. But regardless, wait for blog.blackberry.com to mention it, as that's RIM's official blog, or nfbb, berryreview.com, etc.

[BBB78]

Still waiting for the "Leapfrog" BB10 devices... No idea how RIM's going to pull this one of with the S3 and the Iphone5 around the corner. I still have a thrill of hope...and I still prefer the bold style qwerty... So come on RIM, hurry up and jump

[BB10FTW]

You know I hear so much crap about the BB10 phones not going to be as good as iPhone5 and GS3 but can anyone actually tell me why? For one we know next to nothing about the BB10 phones so to assume they can not compete is just ridiculous. New rumors suggest that Apple's iPad will not use the quad core A6 chip but rather a Dual Core A5X chipset with enhanced capabilities. Many could look at that as an indication that even the great and mighty Apple doesn't want to jump into quad core just yet. Also as far as software what could they possibly do? They are linking OS X and IOS so I imagine the features for IOS 6 or whatever will stem from that. GS3 is another story completely. With the horrible fragmentation issues of Android GS3 will probably not have a chance with the "latest" OS Release because Google loves having a self branded phone get everything first. GS3 will have amazing hardware but the OS will be so much of the same. The Galaxy Note was released with Tons of Samsungs own new features and I haven't heard even 1 mentioned in a review so that clearly hasn't given them the edge. Besides from what I have been reading, a fair bit of Android and iOS users will be more then happy to switch if BB10 delivers.
Android users have very little loyalty to the brand and most of the users I know if not all only stick with it because of the custom roms.
Apple on the other hand has a huge user base and people are very loyal. From what I have read most people thinking about leaving the iPhone are do to the restrictions, they want freedom but not as much as Android because that's just to much.
I have no problem with Android and no problem with iOS but for people to harp on an OS that hasn't even been shown off and say well it won't hold a candle to this one and that one well why not? Don't just say it, give rock solid examples and facts. Tell me why iOS and Android are going to crush RIM?
Right now RIM has the advantage with starting completely fresh, they aren't upgrading they are creating. QNX is hands down the best mobile platform, it has amazing potential.
Everything upto BB10 is basically a beta test to see what they need to fix and to get apps on the platform.

That is my rant for today, thank you and if you are going to reply please use your brain and have a real debate, not just a stupid comment about how I don't know this or how I'm wrong but no actual argument to say why. I'm so sick of people doubting and saying RIM is gonna fail when they haven't done 1 little bit of research on the matter.

Also this was all written on my Bold 9700 onto my Playbook via Blackberry Bridge - The greatest app the Playbook has............ok sorry there are a ton of great apps!!! I just LOVE Bridge!!!!!

[BBB78]

Looking forward to see the reviews and comparisons of Playbook OS2.0 versus Ipad and Android Tablets. These will be a good indicator of how BB10 measures up against the competition

[TechAlberta]

Agreed on your rant, although I wouldn't call it that. I just hope they can get across to the market why it is better. These Beta/VHS scenarios happen all the time across many businesses...

[GoRIMGo]

I don't like all this pre-announcement, pre-release dog and pony show stuff. RIM needs better marketing, clearly, but I just don't know that's the best way to go about it.

Look at Apple's strategy with the iPad 3. They've made nary a peep about it yet. But then, per usual, they will turn up the VOLUME to 11 the first week of March.

Afraid that RIM is just setting up the expectations game all over again. RIM would do better to take a page from Apple and shut the #@@!! up for a while (and continue to quietly release incremental updates to the PB OS ...) .