BlackBerry Curve World Edition for CDMA networks
It’s been reported in the past that the much anticipated and rumored BlackBerry 8330 will be the convergent device for all of the features we long to have for our Curve devices - GPS and Wi-Fi under the hood. Well, unfortunately, it seems that new information has surfaced that leads us to believe that we will not receive GPS in the Curve series.
With our newly obtained information, it appears the BlackBerry 8330 will be another World Edition device that will eventually find it’s way to CDMA carriers, such as Verizon, Sprint and Telus. If and when it actually finds it’s way to market, this will likely be the third CDMA+GSM hybrid device from Research In Motion, joining the 8830 and 8130 (unreleased) with this world-traveler functionality.
While this news may upset some of you waiting for the 8330 to touch down on your favorite GSM carrier, this may come as a blessing in disguise for Verizon and Sprint/Nextel customers who have been foaming at the bit for a camera-enabled full-QWERTY high-speed BlackBerry device (admittedly, I ran out of hyphenated phrases).
This news also irons out a rather confusing naming scheme convention that was presented with the oddity of having the 8330 as the Platinum Edition GSM device within the Curve line. For the 8000 series line, the naming convention is as follows:
81xx: SureType consumer device; camera-enabled
83xx: QWERTY consumer device; camera-enabled
88xx: QWERTY business device; no camera, GPS-enabled
xx00: GSM device
xx10: GSM device; step-sibling upgrade of xx00 (Pearl and Curve only)
xx20: GSM+Wi-Fi device
xx30: CDMA/EVDO+GSM device
Mix and match as needed, although this doesn’t take into account carriers who disable features, such as Verizon and their hard-nosed approach to free GPS functionality.
To recap, if you’re a current GSM customer (AT&T, T-Mobile, Rogers, Vodafone, etc) who wants a Curve and GPS, you won’t see this feature functionality - get the Curve/8300 (with the exception of T-Mobile customers). If you’re a T-Mobile customer and want a Curve, wait a few months and get the UMA/GAN-enabled 8320 when it’s available. If you’re a CDMA customer (Verizon, Sprint/Nextel, Telus, Alltel, etc), you will now have a decision to make - get an 8830, which is available already, or wait for the 8130 Pearl (SureType-QWERTY) and 8330 Curve (full-QWERTY).
Until next time…
On Jun 16, 2007 @ 1:53 pm, PhoneCritic Said:
Me being a blackberry addict. hopefully this information is untrue. cause if it really goes down the way written blackberry will loose customers to apples iphone (even though there loosing them anyways). i just dont think that blackberry gets it! you have the many business crowd out there that dont care about multimedia, but you also have many business people who dont carry around a suitcase and a tie that would like an all in one device so they wont have to carry around there camera mp3 player what im trying to say is that gps, wifi, and camera those are extra features that would make blackberry’s consumers/business more loyal to the device, being that it cant compete with the iphones features 1)ipod and 2)real internet..the least you can do is start throwing us some powerful wow devices RIM. you started with the camera now throw in some gps and throw wifi, you know what, throw in the feature were you can add your credit card to the phone and purchase things with it like they do in japan cause lately the only reactions to your latest “devices” has been a yawn.
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 2:17 pm, HeyMrRadio Said:
Pardon me for being childish, but I hope this isn’t true because, given the lack of availability of new devices for CDMA, I switched from Sprint to AT&T just to get the Curve.
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 2:54 pm, soplush Said:
So when does the CDMA Curve hit stores?
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 3:41 pm, Jim Said:
I don’t understand why people are crying for GPS on their phone. I’ve tried navigation on a phone, and it’s the fisher-price version of the real thing.
My car has built-in navigation. Its touchscreen display is integrated into the dash. It can take over the speakers to provide directions. It has voice control from the steering wheel. It has a solar angle sensor, a yaw rate sensor, and is informed of the car’s speed, so it is accurate and can dead reckon very well. It has a single, upgradable DVD, in the trunk, with the entire lower 48 and parts of Canada. I can search for “Pacific Catch” and get door-to-door directions, even while parked in a garage with no GPS or cellular signal. I can even call ahead for reservations from my bluetooth phone.
If you want GPS when walking around a city, you can determine your starting address right away; there’s no value there either.
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 4:30 pm, Leo Said:
As long as the TMobile version can dowload MSN LiveSearch, everyone should be good :D. I knew I shoulda waited for the TMo realease to switch. I hate the keyboard on The Dash & They had no Wing Devices
not that y’all care lol.
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 5:31 pm, Marlene Brooke, Said:
So when will the next Blackberry 8300 series be available at T-Mobile? “Months” ahead is how many more month’s waiting time? I don’t need the walkie-talkie, audio nor sound, but it would be great to have IM and GPS-enabled features without additional charges being imposed. As for Sprint, what’s the time-frame for the availability of the Blackberry 8330? I do not like the cramped keyboard on the 8800 series, so it’s definitely not on my list.
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 5:40 pm, blah Said:
@Jim
While you are correct that your in-dash nav is heads over heels better than anything that any PDA can offer, not many are willing to handover $1,700 to the car dealer every 3-4 years.
With my 8800 and TeleNav, I get voice output, nice 3D maps, business finder, TRAFFIC and re-routing (new feature), and also a neat little “best gas price” finder. It even has a web server where I can login and manage my trips/locations. It’s integrated into RIM’s addressbook/calendar, so I can get to my clients offices withou a whole lot of re-keying.
Best of all… you can take it with you.
Their fee is about $10 a month, which you can turn on and off for those months where you know you’ll be traveling or not.
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 5:47 pm, JJ Said:
For T-Mobile 8320, by “months” away are you inferring August/September, or November/December release? Just curious, but I’m glad there’s hope that it will actually drop, with WiFi, on T-Mobile!
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 5:56 pm, connie Said:
i just saw some guy at the san diego airport with the world bb 8830 already. so it is definitely coming.
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 6:59 pm, jwheels24 Said:
Exactly wht I have been waiting for…..I love it when a plan comes together!
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 7:12 pm, Sean Said:
@Jim
Preach about in-dash navigation. I never understood the gps on a phone do you use it if you get lost at your company? I mean my BMW takes my contacts list directly from the phone. Not to mention there is no service fee and I get real-time traffic with no subscription… I guess I paid a little more upfront for the car… but who’s counting… BB 8830 come out already because I am truly bored with Nextel and their crappy service!!!!!
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 7:24 pm, Marlene Said:
The BB 8830 keyboard is the same as the BB 8800. The BB Curve (8300) keyboard is very similar to the BB 8700. If you like the 8800 series’ tight keyboard, then it may be your god-send. Because I do a lot of text messaging, I prefer the 8300 series.
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 7:53 pm, soplush Said:
so when does verizon get it BG? damn a gps
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 9:07 pm, Robert Said:
If Verizon would get this phone before the iphone comes out, then they wouldn’t lose as many customers to at&t. Because it would finally fill the camera Blackberry void that Verizon has had forever now.
But I seriously doubt that they would get it before then. As much as I hate to–I will most likely drop Verizon’s great coverage and reliability just to get the iphone. (By the way, at&t has a whole lot more “dropped calls” than Verizon! –i tried them briefly, so I know.)
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 9:52 pm, Corey Said:
Verizon won’t be getting the 8330 for at least a year. Even then it’ll depend on how sales of the GSM 83xx were. You’ll see VZ Navigator in a month or two, and a Pearl in November for (business customers).
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 10:18 pm, Dave Said:
BG, when’s the expected date for release with sprint/verizon? I’m about to jump on the 8830 when it drops for sprint. It is worth waiting for the 8330?
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On Jun 16, 2007 @ 10:52 pm, jwheels Said:
I’m in the same boat as Dave, is the time frame worth waiting?
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On Jun 17, 2007 @ 12:59 am, BBadBoy Said:
Well, Jim, I’m glad your car has built-in navigation, but not all of is are so fortunate. It was not an available feature in my pickup truck and I frequently rely on Telenav on my BlackBerry 7100i. Paying $1000+ for a TomTom or similar system also is not an option, at least not for now. So I won’t even consider upgrading to any non GPS-enabled smart phone.
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On Jun 17, 2007 @ 1:19 am, MoMo Said:
@BG
So does this mean that the up and coming Pearl 2(8110/20/30) will not come with GPS either? The rumor is that the Pearl 2 will be much thinner than it’s current counterpart. Which leads me to believe that they will also not have GPS built in.
I am really disappointed that the so called “Papa Bear” Curve will not be what we had hoped for.
I now hope that the Pearl 2 will somehow have the upgraded camera, Wi-Fi and GPS. Is it really so hard to put all three on a unit already? Apparently not.
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On Jun 17, 2007 @ 1:36 am, Ryan Said:
I am seriously considering dropping Verizon’s near perfect network for ATTs terrible network because of the iPhone but I would not even think about it if I could have the Curve and the perfect network! I really hope this comes soon because it’s what I have been waiting for. I hate the 8830 and will stick with my 8703e until I can get either a Curve on VZW or break down and switch to ATT for the iPhone.
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On Jun 17, 2007 @ 2:46 am, OGHowie Said:
Why anyone would drop a near perfect network for just one phone baffles me.
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On Jun 17, 2007 @ 5:15 am, PhoneCritic Said:
i dont understand why anyone into phones as much as us on the internet roaming these sites everyday would stick with verizon/sprint. they have the worst phones! they dont have anything up to date they dont even get the best blackberrys on time there just gong to be getting the pearl in a few months wile its been out for a year now on gsm carriers. and as far as service goes i use to be on sprint and they had great service i was afraid to leave because i thought other carriers like tmobile couldn’t deliver like sprint could well actually tmobile network is just fine i never have a drop call and if it does happen to drop a call so what!? and they have cheap plans, cool phones. if you phone addicts stick it out with your cdma phone companies your going to have a misserable time. as you can see att comes out with the best phones tmobile aswell. so switch to them..
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On Jun 17, 2007 @ 5:51 am, tOMPSON Said:
Last week I have got the information that there is a BlackBerry 83xx device WITH internal GPS. It will be introduced by a local Network operator very soon. I got this from a trusted source.
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On Jun 17, 2007 @ 8:38 am, Sam Said:
PhoneCritic:
Some of us stay with the CDMA carriers because the GSM carriers service where we live is absolutely horrible. Just a few hours out of NYC, AT&T and TMo’s service is terrible.
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On Jun 17, 2007 @ 8:45 am, Ryan Said:
The reason I am hesitant to switch is because my friend, who lives very close to me, has AT&T and he drops calls all the time and has terrible service.
To answer OGHowie’s question, gadget fan boys will trade service for gadget any day!
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