BlackBerry Storm goes into TA (technical acceptance) at Verizon, delayed 3-4 weeks
Here’s our latest info on the BlackBerry Storm and the fate of the device on Verizon’s network: it just went into technical acceptance at Verizon which usually takes around 3-4 weeks, and the device has been delayed internally by around 3-4 weeks while they work out the kinks (read: buggy and unresponsive) and polish it up. That puts us around a mid-November launch on Verizon. We’ve double confirmed that information, so it should be pretty accurate. Additionally, we heard from someone else that they’ve increased the marketing budget for the BlackBerry Storm just to give AT&T a little kick in the nuts for delaying the Bold so much. That’s not confirmed, still probably a little true, plus we got a chuckle out of that anyway.
Tags: AT&T, blackberry storm, blackberry thunder, RIM, Verizon
I also disagree with the “unresponsive” comment–the version submitted for TA is running on newer hardware than what BG’s sources have seen in the past.
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@ Taylor: In-store reps and Data Sales reps are very different people. That said, there is a lot of misinformation floating around on Thunder. Nothing is official until RIM and Verizon Wireless/Vodafone make an official announcement. Say, isn’t there some newfangled BlackBerry Developers Conference in October? Hmm…
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BG, typically TA is only granted after successful lab and field testing. Then a cycle of indetermininent length before GA (general availability). That cycle could be as short as a day, or as long as a month (to coincide with an event or marketing opportunity, stock stores, do PR, field trial 3-rd party stuff, etc). So TA just means it’s OK to lock down device firmware.
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@ Taylor
Thanks. Yeah, just “wishful thinking” I s’pose.
BGR has been pretty accurate so far, so no reason to doubt him now…(even if it means waiting longer for the Storm!)….
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I think ATT needs another kick in the nuts for delaying the Bold!
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Not getting the Storm, but 3-4 weeks is better than 3-4 months.
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You guys are funny blaming at&t for device delays. Last time I checked they don’t make any. I’d blame the manufacturer and their inability to get it right. The carriers rightly don’t accept devices if they don’t pass muster.
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It shouldn’t be too much longer until we receive some official information - hopefully we will be hearing about the Storm next week at CTIA. VzW will be presenting Wed. and RIM will be presenting Thurs.
I am inclined to go with Stop-n-Go on this one though that if there is a delay, its not due to the unresponsiveness. I think we are past that at this point and possibly addressing browser or connectivity issues.
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Any word on how Verizon will have this locked/dumbed down? I am thinking the differences between the Thunder and Storm will be stuff like Verizon locking GPS to only work with VZ Navigator.
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Pass muster??!?! They accepted the Iphone with no qualms and you want to talk about pass muster?? Let’s be serious. How many crappy phones have they accepted without it passing muster?? VZW is the best, period…and if the manufacturers and carriers don’t both do their jobs the phones won’t come out so don’t try and pass the blame on to just one. THANKS
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This phone was first on my radar to replace my Curve until I saw that “box art” last week and saw no wi-fi. WTF is up with that? No Wi-Fi and a pre-installed microSDHC card? Not even 8GB of INTERNAL storage? Wow, RIM’s really going all out. I’m a BlackBerry freak and this is pissing me the hell off. iPhone killer my ass. And the browser will probably still suck. I’m so disappointed.
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@Travis
“This phone was first on my radar to replace my Curve until I saw that “box art” last week and saw no wi-fi. WTF is up with that? No Wi-Fi and a pre-installed microSDHC card? Not even 8GB of INTERNAL storage? Wow, RIM’s really going all out.”
First off that isn’t the BOX ART…It’s a sleeve. On the Sleeve it isn’t suppose to tell you specs, only what comes with the phone that is in the box. Second, there is no proof that Wi-Fi is or isn’t a feature of the phone, because there is no feature specs give out by the sleeve art. Lastly, the 8gb pre-installed microSDHC card is a huge plus! As the phone’s internal memory has yet to be known by anyone other than RIM and those testing the phone at Verizon. For all we know it might have 8Gb of internal as well. So your assessments of the phone is really pre-mature,since there hasn’t been a full detailed list of specs give out by RIM, yet.
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Travis,
I don’t get why SDHC is considered worse than internal? If anything, isn’t it a bonus to be able to expand and swap out your memory? And when did 8GB become a tiny bit of memory? Geeze, that’s 20 hrs of video or 10,000 songs! How is that a draw back for a phone? Hell, many dedicated media players have less memory and they don’t have phone, gps and pda capabilities.
Regarding WiFi, I wouldn’t count on box art being the final verdict on features. All previous reports said WiFi was in there, so don’t give up hope yet…
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GPS?
Wi-fi?
Price???
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Although it is looking like there will be no WiFi-it hasn’t been ruled out 100% yet. The device hasn’t even been announced yet, so keep your fingers crossed…
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Boy genius will be possible to activate this phone will sprint? since sprint and Verizon both are CDMA.
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@ Quemadaor
No, unlike GSM phones, CDMA phones are locked to their service providers because of the absence of a SIM card. This phone will have a SIM card, but obviously that makes no difference with regards to Sprint.
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Nice, let’s all kick AT&T in the nuts!
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First off I’d like to say that Bubba, you’re retarded and should wear a dunce cap and go sit in the corner for obvious reasons. Carriers don’t set release dates? Rofl. Um, in most cases, the carrier sets ALL release dates. The manufacturers only make the phone, decide when they’d “like” to release it, but ultimately it’s up to the carrier to decide when they’d like to. There are plenty of devices that sit in limbo for quite a while waiting for a Carrier to launch. Carriers have to step in with launch decisions in a lot of cases because they have to do what makes the most sense for the business.
For example, here’s a little food for thought: Do you guys really think the Bold being delayed on AT&T (when it’s launched elsewhere) has anything to do with device issues? No, from a business perspective, it makes no sense for AT&T to release their two biggest products - the iPhone 3G and BlackBerry Bold - of the year at the same time. So, while the Bold MAY HAVE (once again, this is an assumption because RIM nor AT&T ever officially announced a date) been scheduled for a summer release, I can totally understand AT&T not wanting to release them both in summer. Not only would the devices be fighting for real estate (I’d also imagine that a lot of unhappy iPhone 3G users would be jumping ship to the Bold as well), but that’d leave them completely naked for the remainder of the year with no new product to hype up for the holiday season. So, AT&T chose to let Apple take summer sales and the Bold will be the Holiday season sales. That way, they make maximum profit and they don’t step on each other toes. Not to mention I’m sure Apple didn’t want AT&T to launch the Bold around their device either.
Second, I don’t see why people are so surprised at this new. No offense to BGR - despite being right a lot of times - you guys have to remember that anything this site or sites like it receives is just hearsay until it’s officially announced by the carriers. The information (IMO) is basically only true at the moment it’s spoken, but it’s not technically official. For example, I may have plans to launch a new site on November 11 and I’m pretty dead set on that and I probably started telling people internally. But, I never publicly announced it. So, if I change my mind or something comes out, sure people on the inside might be upset, but I never announced anything as official. So what I say was only true at the moment and it wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of information that blogs receive is this exact type of information.
As you can see, the Bold supposedly has been coming out since… May? according to most blogs and here we are in September. People are blaming AT&T for delays when in actuality, it’s not technically a delay since they never officially announced anything.
Calm down people, the world isn’t over and frankly if people didn’t spend so much time on blogs, they’d probably be a bit happier since people seem to take blog information as official, when it’s anything but.
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Speaking of which, where are my new Sony Tri-Luminos TV’s that I believe were suppose to be out by now? I’ve seen everything recently from Sony announced BUT that. Damnit I want my TV. So, to my same point, if I didn’t take everything as facts myself from this site, I wouldn’t be so pissed right now that my Sony TV isn’t out yet like certain sites said it would be. grr
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You can call this a delay if you like, but Verizon Wireless seems to release new Blackberry units (not counting different colors) every six months - 8830 in May 2007, 8130 in November 2007, and 8330 in May 2008.
I never expected it to be out before November anyway.
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Where is the Diamond and Pro news, those will be out before this
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While AT&T will clearly have wanted to launch Bold when it suits their schedule, we shouldn’t overlook the liklihood that their technical acceptance has raised issues that were relevant to them or their network that weren’t an issue on other carriers who were thus able to accept and launch the device sooner.
As far as this actual article, you do have to wonder if bgr will ever get bored of claiming delays on new products when any product like this is bound to build in some flexibility to the schedule to account for any issues that crop up during development.
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We also shouldn’t overlook the possibility that the launch delay on the ATT Bold is exactly BECAUSE of the problems the iPhone 3G has been having! f the reports are true of higher 3G use clobbering ATT’s cell sites, you think a couple hundred thousand 3G Blackberry’s is going to HELP that situation??? Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if ATT is seeking out a backend solution to iPhone 3G’s data problems, and figuring how to roll it to their cell sites, BEFORE the launch another hot new 3G crunching device into the market.
As for the Storm, well, as has been mentioned, BBDC IS coming soon….
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