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Purchasing a BlackBerry is a serious decision. Not only does the device cost up to $200, but you’re then committing to two years of service. We discussed the total BlackBerry cost a while ago. Voice plan, messaging plan, data plan — it all adds up over two years. Earlier this year we saw a prepaid carrier, MetroPCS, launch the BlackBerry Curve 8330. The service cost $50 per month for unlimited voice and messaging, plus BIS ($60 for BES), making it cheaper than most other BlackBerry service plans. It’s attractive because there is no commitment — not in the contractual sense, at least. The device cost over $400, and that kind of investment can keep you tied to the service. It appears T-Mobile is trying a similar gambit.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 11/16/2009…

RIM held the second annual BlackBerry Developer Conference this week, and where there is a conference there is news. Considering the BlackBerry’s inferiority in the software department, the conference had the potential to be big. And, unsurprisingly, we got a few announcements that could eventually change the BlackBerry software for the better. Which is nothing but good news.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From the Wire for the Week of 11/9/2009…

I’ll admit, I was a bit distracted from the BlackBerry world this week by this. Still, there’s plenty of BlackBerry stuff to discuss. For instance, Verizon announced the Curve 8530, to be known as the Curve2. It’ll hit shelves and the Web on November 20 for $99.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate. I’ve been telling people that if you’re not a big video user, this is a great deal. It features a 528 MHz processor, Wi-Fi, and really most features of new BlackBerry models except the screen. It’s better than its cousin, the 8520, because its on Verizon’s 3G EVDO network, rather than on T-Mobile’s slower EDGE.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 11/2/2009…

The BlackBerry plan is falling into place. In last week’s News From The Wire we went over the 9700, which had just been announced by AT&T, Rogers, and T-Mobile. Right up front I addressed a rumor that there would be a delay on the Storm 2, but in the span of just a few days that was debunked. In fact, Verizon announced and released the Storm 2 since our last edition. Hell, you might be reading this on your Storm 2 right now. That’s pretty cool. But just because two devices have been announced in the past week doesn’t meant that we’re out of things to talk about. Hardly.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 10/26/2009…

A question that’s been asked with increasing volume this week: Where is Verizon’s Storm 2 announcement? Vodafone made the announcement last week, and the Storm 2 should hit their shelves on Monday. We expected Verizon to closely follow, but over a week has passed and we’ve heard nothing. No one wants a delay — that was RIM’s signature in 2008 — but it appears that’s what might happen. Ed Hardy of Brighthand.com notes unconfirmed reports that the Storm hasn’t passed Verizon’s internal tests, meaning they’re still working on it. An announcement won’t come until the company is satisfied.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 10/19/2009…

There’s no reason to bury the lead: Vodafone is the first to introduce the BlackBerry Storm 2. It’s everything we expected, featuring a 360 x 480 pixel, 3.25-inch touch screen with improved SurePress technology, WiFi, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and more. We’re not far from launch: it will hit Vodafone shelves on October 26 — for free with a two-year commitment to a £35 monthly plan. That’s certainly the right price, but don’t expect Verizon to follow suit (even though Verizon Wireless is partly owned by Vodafone). We have plenty more Storm 2 goodies to come in this week’s News From The Wire.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 10/12/2009…

There’s plenty of news this week about new BlackBerry devices, but to kick things off I want to highlight a story that seemed small at first, but grew as word spread throughout the week. T-Mobile has agreed to carry BlackBerry Mobile Voice Systems, a two-year-old platform that allows companies to reroute desk calls to a user’s BlackBerry. This ties in with T-Mobile’s @ Home service, which allows customers to make unlimited calls over a Wi-Fi network, without using any plan minutes. Combined, it means employees can receive calls whether at work or on the road, and if they are in a Wi-Fi hotspot will not be billed for the minutes used.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 10/5/2009…

I waited last Thursday. News From The Wire was done, but I wanted to see if RIM would make their quarterly earnings announcement, so I could slip that in and have the full report. But no. The announcement didn’t come until later, and eventually I decided to just toss up the post. RIM did announced their second quarter earnings. Since most aren’t interested in the technicals, here are the highlights. RIM shipped 8.3 million devices. This led to 3.8 million net adds, bringing the total subscriber base to 32 million. Revenue was up 3 percent from the first quarter and 37 percent from the second quarter last year. Since wireless tends to slump mid-year, those are good numbers.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 9/28/09…

Feeling overloaded with BlackBerry news and rumors? We know the feeling. We hear new things almost every day, and it can be tough to keep up with it all. that’s why we’re bringing you BlackBerry News from the Wire every Thursday.

We’ll catch you up on everything ‘Berry that happened over the course of the week. Not only that, but we’ll rank ‘em by importance, so you can more easily skim the items and read the ones of most significance. If you only have time to read one article, for instance, you might want to head down to our 5-star section. It’s All the BlackBerry News Fit to Geek.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 9/21/2009…

Feeling overloaded with BlackBerry news and rumors? We know the feeling. We hear new things almost every day, and it can be tough to keep up with it all. that’s why we’re bringing you BlackBerry News from the Wire every Thursday.

We’ll catch you up on everything ‘Berry that happened over the course of the week. Not only that, but we’ll rank ‘em by importance, so you can more easily skim the items and read the ones of most significance. If you only have time to read one article, for instance, you might want to head down to our 5-star section. It’s All the BlackBerry News Fit to Geek.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 9/14/09…