AT&T crippling GPS in BlackBerry 8820?
Ok. So, Doug from BlackBerry Cool is saying an "AT&T insider" has informed them that the upcoming BlackBerry 8820 on AT&T will basically be tied to TeleNav in regards to GPS functionality. That means you are forced to pay $9.99/month if you wish to utilize the built-in GPS. Kind of sucks, right? It is pretty hard to believe. But is it true? There has been no official confirmation whatsoever, but we think this might actually be possible. The reasoning BBCool has given, is that AT&T saw the 8820 (WiFi + GPS) at a subsidized, low price point, a threat to the iPhone. They are so totally different that I’m not sure anyone could think that. We have a strictly enterprise product, and a straight consumer product here people. The price point alone is enough to sway people either way. GPS, at the end of the day, shouldn’t make that big of a difference. The selling point for the 8820 is WiFi, not GPS. You always have the regular BlackBerry 8800 for that. As ludicrous as it sounds, this might be the case though. Prove us wrong. Then our mock conversation with AT&T and RIM below won’t look so stupid…
AT&T: Hi. Can I speak to Jim Balsillie please?
RIM operator: Who’s calling?
AT&T: Apple’s wireless carrier
RIM: You mean, AT&T?
AT&T: Is that what we’re calling ourselves these days? Well, I suppose so, yeah, sure, AT&T.
RIM: Please hold
AT&T: Cool beans.
Jim Balsilie: Hello?
AT&T: I need to talk you about the upcoming BlackBerry 8820. You know, the one we keep missing the launch date on?
Jim Balsilie: Shoot.
AT&T: Well, Steve Jobs was just in India, and he went on a straight 14-day juice fast with intense medication and when he got back, he told us that he wanted us to make the 8820 "less appealing because it would take away from the iPhone"
Jim Balsilie: You know I told you to never mention that phone to me again. Don’t get me started on the way you guys forever changed the telecom industry…
AT&T: Well, we need to tie in the GPS functionality to only TeleNav. No more of this BlackBerry Maps horseshit.
Jim Balsillie: Am I getting a cut off of TeleNav?
AT&T: Nah, we’re giving your percentage to Apple
Jim Balsillie: Well, then, no.
AT&T: You’re not getting it Jim. We either do this, or we don’t carry BlackBerry devices anymore and drop the BlackBerry 8820.
Jim Balsillie: You can’t do that. You make more money per BlackBerry sale than the Devil phone.
AT&T: You’re probably right, but still. Our Commander in Chief has requested it.
Jim Balsillie: Well, then, er, I’m not selling YOU anymore BlackBerry devices!
AT&T: Right, but I just said that Jim.
Jim Balsillie: Whatevs, do what you want. We’ve got this amazing new BlackBerry coming out that works on Verizon. Isn’t that incredible? It will change the world I…
AT&T: Please hang up the phone or try again. If you’ve reached this message in error, please check the number and try again…
LOL man M$ dosn’t even go that far on raping yur wallet> i somtimes wonder why att has not been bought out yet grantedit would be hard for seutche telcom to tke em away fomHSBCcomunications
@TJHood
Dude you don’t need a data plan to use Wi-fi all you need is a home router. Att doesn’t have a single hotspot, that’s all tmo.
FWIW, I just posted on BBF a few mins ago with my thoughts on this, but honestly, AT&T ‘cripples’ GPS – out of the box – to TeleNav only. There’s no hardware crippling. You can download Google Maps and use it just fine. BlackBerry Maps is usually installed out of the box with every other device, but it’s nowhere to be found on the 8800 from AT&T. Why? Because AT&T restricts the installation through the use of a carrier/vendor exclusion in the LBS.alx file. Modify that and remove the exclusions and you’re free to load and use BlackBerry Maps. I foresee the same thing with the 8820 device release. …regardless, it has little to nothing to do with Apple. If they can make $10/mo on subscriptions to TeleNav, assuming their relationship and contract with TeleNav is ripe enough of an award, then why not make a good percentage of extra earnings from people who have no clue otherwise?
Jibi- I saw your post at BBF. Thanks for taking the time to educate us. I had no idea ATT restricted GPS on the 8800 when it came out. I’m encouraged that your method could (in theory) work on the 8820. I’m going to back away from the ledge now.
Jibi, I think the assumption is that they are going beyond what they did for the 8800.
For the 8800, BlackBerry Maps was not installed by default because ATT demanded for it to be removed. But people figured out a way around that stupidity. Also, the GPS functionality was still available for use by 3rd party applications.
For the 8830, Verizon appears to have forced RIM to disable GPS support in the OS. So BlackBerry Maps & third party apps cannot work at all. They tried to justify it with nonsense about needing to make the software quality to good enough to run on their network (I’m sure RIM and Google are have quality software).
So, the question is – with the 8820 is AT&T going to have RIM not include their BlackBerry Maps client but leave GPS open so that third party applications can still work or are they going to pull a Verizon and completely lock everyone out?
Carriers/ISPs always seem to be advocates of ‘letting the free market’ decide when folks bring up net neutrality. It’s a shame that they don’t play fair.
This situation angers me even more because Telenav is a fantastic product and BlackBerry Maps is a standard application with no voice directions. It’s like Microsoft saying they’ll no longer include notepad and wordpad in Windows so people will have to buy Office. Except Microsoft would never do that since they’re the sole company involved.
Put simply, carriers should just do their jobs – carry data. They’re welcome to create products too, but not by blocking others from competing. It’s stories like these that just enrages me and hopes for a company like Google to bid & win on the spectrum.
And to be honest, I expected Apple to be the one to take the charge. Instead what we got was a fantastic product with a 5 year exclusive.
Carriers are simply a cancer to mobile innovation. I hope everyone continues to speak out against practices like this.
I just wish carriers would let
oops “I just wish carriers would let…” should have been omitted.
it’s not restricted on tmo that much i can tell you
try loading voada phones os too
wait a sec, doesn’t this whole thing make more sense if you replace “GPS” with “WIFI”? Then it makes sense b/c they don’t want the BB to compete with the iPhone.
According to the business reps for AT&T that I deal with they do NOT even have the 8820 in stock and the last they were told is it will be there when they get there. Latest heard is September 15th, but I hear allot of people saying the 24 of this month.
RIM may have gotten word from it’s biggest customers that GPS needs to be locked down.
If not, any kid could write a program that contains a trojan horse GPS app.
GPS while great, is also scary if used by the wrong people.
Since a majority of BB users are corporate types, security is of the utmost concern to them. So only allowing “blessed” apps to run on the device makes sense.
Jeff B.
I hope you are right.. but that goes against the thoughts of many discussions.. many things suggest that a blackberry data plan will be required.
If you have any hard facts please share them.
Please send AT&T chairman cat box contents, used condoms and other tokens of appreciation.
I have no problem being tied to Telenav so long as they make it work worldwide. I just came back from a Europe trip and Google maps/GPS was a lifesaver. I’m told that one can purchase a UK plan and it will work in USA as well, but it’s an old version of Telenav.
And You’d be *wrong* ATT *did* cripple the 8820. I’m one of the poor schmucks who bought it thinking it would do what the hardware says.