“Launching new products is always difficult,” Jonathan S. Geller reports for BGR. “Launching new products with hundreds of different carriers is exponentially more difficult.”
“Apparently there is an easy way and a hard way to do things, however, and RIM has been making carriers offers they can’t refuse,” Geller reports. “BGR has learned from a trusted source that RIM has been strong-arming several carriers, essentially forcing them to approve devices they normally would not move through the Technical Acceptance phase.”
Geller reports, “We have been informed by a very reliable source at a major carrier that RIM has been putting an enormous amount of pressure on carriers to approve the upcoming BlackBerry smartphones like the BlackBerry Bold 9900 — phones that have to hold RIM over until its next-generation platform launch in 2012 — and that certain carriers will be approving the devices, ‘no matter what — with bugs and problems.’ … It’s one of the reasons some carriers launch devices sooner than others.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: DCW RIM’s death throes, we understand, but, if this report is true, what’s in it for the carriers? Pissing off customers with half-baked devices that are more likely to be returned seems like bad business. Perhaps some carriers figure their customers will simply give them a pass and blame the device maker when they return their buggy BlackBerry for the iPhone they really wanted? All of the carriers ought to tell the RIM zombie to drop dead.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Phil O.” for the heads up.]
I bet there is some truth in that. Those Treos I used to have from 600 in up would lock up almost every week. I got into the habit of rebooting once a week to prevent that. When I got my first iPhone 1gen I was always itchy to reboot the thing once a week because the POS Treo had me progrmmed to think it’s normal.
Nothing like smacking your current, loyal customers in the face with crappy products and then asking them to buy your new products next year. Good luck with that, RIM!
Awfully good timing by RIM, though, now that the iPhone is on Verizon.
Sounds like a plan. They will be able to tout better numbers, using the shipped (not sold) numbers. Not that anyone will really believe them.
I can’t see that RIM is in any position to strong arm anyone. They need all the good will with carriers that they can get and probably need a lot more.
They’ve probably always done this. Is it any wonder Blackberry users have the whole battery-removal-reset maneuver ingrained as a reflex?
Wow, that sucks to be the customer. If they aren’t being sued based upon what Jean-Louis Gassée wrote about today, then they’re going to get sued for pushing out half-baked crapberries.
RIM is dead.
At least RIM will be able to count resold returns as a second sale. Hell, they could hit a million sold with just a stock of 100.
They are going to be sold two-for-one, so it’s probably the customers’ (those who go for such a “deal”) expectation that the product is crappy.
An image is conjuring in my head of a clunky old robot, begging in the street for oil, attempting to cross the road without being slammed into oblivion by a truck, dropping pieces of itself in its wake.
A friend mine got a Blackberry two weeks ago. He struggled to get the email working properly—even the sales rep at O2 failed miserably After a little persuading on my part, he took it back and got an iPhone instead. Result? One very happy camper!
The build quality of the Blackberry was less than stellar. If this is indicative of RIMM’s quality control, little wonder they’re circling the bowl.
=:~)