Jay's Random Thoughts

Well, I have posted quite frequently about my interest in Blackberry cellphones in the past.  I often lamented the fact that the Bold was delayed terribly especially since my phone is getting old in the tooth and desperately needs replacement.

As the old adage goes, "When it rains, it pours", I have gone from having no new options to two brand new choices.  AT&T announced the Blackberry Bold which is the newest QWERTY BB.  This phone is essentially the newest version of the traditional BB form factor device.  It has been delayed incessantly and is finally available.  Definitely a good choice although it is simply an enhanced version of the existing platform.

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A couple of days ago, I posted about my frustration with Apple’s AppStore.  Recently, T-Mobile announced the G1 which is the polar opposite of the iPhone from a platform standpoint.  The G1 is based off of Google’s new open source Android software which is a highly extensible OS for smart phones.  The beauty of the platform is that the API’s are publicly available and anyone can write applications.

Android is thus avoids the Apple big brother approach to applications.  In my opinion, this is the right way to do it.  End users shold have the right to download and install any application they want.  This is the way it is with Android, with my Blackberry and should be with the iPhone.

I hope that Apple recognizes this issue; however, I am not sure if they ever will.  Their historic model is a proprietary one where they tightly control the hardware and software of their platforms and thus I think that it is unlikel they would change this for the iPhone.

The Blackberry Bold seems to be one of those products that is perpetually delayed.  The original launch date of the phone was supposed to be June, but due to software glitches, it was delayed.  The most recent launch date specified was October 2, but yet again, it is delayed.  Ironically, it has been released all over the world and so the launch delays are US specific.

One question that I ponder is whether an element of the delay is due to AT&T purposefully delaying to sell more iPhones.  This could be a conspiracy theory, but I think that it could be possible.

The other issue is that AT&T is now going to launch the phone around the same time that Verizon launches the Storm.  The Storm, if you have forgotten, is RIM’s touchscreen Blackberry and is meant to compete with the iPhone.  Had AT&T launched the Bold earlier in the year, they would have had a jump start on the Verizon phone.  That time advantage has now been squandered and it is unclear when the Bold will arrive.

As it stands, I believe that the arrival of the Storm will cause many end users to delay Bold purchases and possibly bypass the phone altogether.  This could be trouble for AT&T and so it will be interesting to see how the sales of the two devices compare.  I am holding off until I can check out both devices.