AT&T quietly rolls out the Blackberry 8820
We received word that the long rumored Blackberry 8820 has been received in AT&T warehouses across the country. So far they’re trying to keep this pretty little number on the hush-hush. The fear is that that people will wait until this device is released to buy their new BlackBerry units, which leaves them stuck with BlackBerry 8800s. A reliable source hit us up with some intel saying AT&T is releasing it as a quiet update, and will not be shipping any BlackBerry 8820’s to all stores nationally. Instead, they will ship the product on a store by store basis depending on the current BlackBerry 8800 supply. To sum this up: You’re local store most probably isn’t getting any BlackBerry 8820s until their stock of BlackBerry 8800s is depleted. AT&T did this once before with the Nokia 6102i when they decided to add Bluetooth support to the unit. We would tell you they’re holding off on even a press release, but with general consumer interest around this device, we can’t see them doing that. At this time, as far as we know, there are no actual BlackBerry 8820s units in stores, but we expect them very soon. Price point is also slated to remain at the $299 mark with a 2-year contract. Happy WiFi’in, folks.
rather have an htc advantage 7501 than an over glorified plastic brick
Like I have said in other posts , I always ask the business sales reps, and I also asked RIM support whats going on , the one thing they both agree on is at Christmas time there is supposed to be a BB for AT&T with 3G, Wifi, or 3G & GPS.
If AT&T is going to start locking down things like VZW, either Sprint is going to pick up the customers or TMO.
I do know in talking with VZW’s Customer care, when I returned my BB8830 because of not knowing whether or not they were going to enable the GPS functionality the CS rep said that they were gaining allot of people back from AT&T “IPhone” jump because they had to goto Apple for any repairs or swap outs and that allot of the customers said its a nice piece of equipment but they either had too many problems with the IPHone or network problems ie dropped calls, poor signal reception, slow as heck data.
For me I’ll wait and see what the 8820 has ! As in whats enabled or can be enabled. Just as with the BBMaps deal, and like I already said I just went to download straight from BB and the download did the install and rebooted, walked outside and with in a min or 2 I had 9+ satellites . I thought about all this GPS concern last night, and I still do not see the big problem, if you do not want some one to track you down turn the darn thing off and don’t use it.
Worse case switch providers, Sprints CS is supposed to be hell but there BB is great and the data speeds are great. & theres TMO if I did not need my cell service out of the general area I live in, I would switch to them, but once I leave a major highway I am up a creek.
sneaky sneaky! owell! long as I know its coming very very soon! I’ll keep checking daily! Can’t wait!
charles Douglas, who are you and why are we to trust you? just curious not accusing you of anything.
I’m also curious like jef, does wifi on blackberrys work without data plan?
Ok guys, at&t will not disable the GPS. at&t makes money off GPS, why in the hell would they disable it. If this phone is going to have GPS, it wont have WiFi. If it has Wifi, I’m pretty sure you’ll need a data plan to enable it, just like the iPhone.
..geeze
Just who passed this information along ? Where did this come from . These devices are NOT even in the system at AT&T, and NO one at corporate or agent level has even gotten the word there in stock. Disabling GPS, yea right another VZW , dont think so.
Some people need to read all the posts before they spew out a rant.
Disable isn’t the word.
words like proprietary are more suited.
they just want it to work only with there service so they can rake in a buck. Nevermind if the infrastructure is already present so that you don’t really need to use them.
READ BEFORE YOU REPLY.. THANKS
New promo for the 8800 on my Premier site- $149 with a $39.99 or greater data plan and…get this…if you sign up for TeleNav, too. That’s $50 less than their last promotion. Moving them out?
I still don’t understand what’s the point of WiFi on a Blackberry. UMA seems less useful than just calling using the regular GPS network. Browsing on a tiny screen isn’t that fun either.
Anyone want to enlighten me? Or maybe not.
What the hell? I just want it NOW, with full GPS and WIFI capability WITHOUT being forced to pay for a data plan or telenav (you need to pay to get the dam gps to work as well as have a data plan, the wifi also requires a data plan.)
I mean WTF, I’m buying the damn phone, sure I’ll probably want a data plan with it, butt what the hell are you forcing it on me for. I’ll forgo what I thought would be my ultimate phone until I can get 3 things:
1. GPS without extra subscription costs
2. GPS lat/lon output (for emergency/safety)
3. WIFI that don’t require the damn data plan.
Thanks, but no thanks. Go screw yourself at&t.
Arent you kind of jumping the gun here, considering this BB8820 has not even hit the streets yet and NO one has it in there hands?
Sit back and wait and see what happens
Come on now how long have you had a cell phone? When has the provider given a rats rear about what the customers wanted?
They are in for the money, if they could charge you for breathing they would. I can see your point on emergency/safety. I would like to have complete voice coverage no matter where I am.
Octo,
The 8800 now displays lat & long. Not sure what you want there? E911 covers the cell network. GPS shows the lat & long. without cell network coverage. I use GPS on 8800 and no subscription, 8820 will be the same.
wifi should not require data plan but push and using bb browser should require data plan. I cant imagine not having a data plan for mine, if you dont need push then their are other alternatives.
HarveyWallbanger
Actually the 8820 has already been released in three countries. With that said I still haven’t see any info coming from them either.
one instance I’d use gps on my phone is say i’m on a hunting trip and don’t have any cell reception anywhere near.. with that said I can’t use the GPS? so then I have to carry a seperate GPS navigator even though one is built into my phone..though the people coming up with these ideas probbly never leave the city.
Well said TJhood, what good is GPS and WiFi on a phone if you can’t get a signal? I was hoping that the 8820 would have the ability to connect anywhere. I to have had to use seperate GPS unit.
BTW, I just came back from 2 at&t stores in NYC (34th street and time square) and they both don’t have the 8820 in stock and “don’t even know if we will be getting this phone”.
When I asked about the 8800 they said that they don’t have any left and that they are on back-order but don’t know when they’ll get them.
So it seems like it is close, but I’m not sure TBG’s statement that stores that run out of 8800 should be getting them is true based on this short survey.
Did anyone get a chance to go/call other stores and verify?
http://www.blackberryforums.com/rumor-mill/91921-tbgr-t-quietly-rolls-out-blackberry-8820-a.html