Is it just me or does Cingular really suck at product release strategy?

Chuck
#1. November 28th, 2006, at 11:13 AM.

FYI, it’s moot point not mute point.

Steve
#2. November 28th, 2006, at 11:20 AM.

I love using “moot”.

Randa
#4. November 28th, 2006, at 1:59 PM.

Spelling aside, I think, Robb, you make some very good points. Even if Cingular’s plan all along was to release the BlackBerry Pearl today, which I tend to doubt, they should have done a better job at controlling, or, at least, trying to control spin surrounding the launch, or escape, as it may be.

Missing Black Friday by just three days, as you point out, just doesn’t make sense. Clearly T-Mobile doesn’t have an exclusive on the device until December 1 or we wouldn’t be talking about the Cingular BlackBerry Pearl release today. That being said, missing the largest selling day of the year in the United States by 3 days has to be seen as either a botched released or complete incompetence on the part of the program manager responsible for launching the Pearl. Either way, quite unacceptable from a company the size of and with the resources of Cingular.

Thom
#6. November 28th, 2006, at 6:25 PM.

I was on the Cingular premier site and chatted with a rep on the live help page. t This is what the response was to my question about what happened to the Pearl posted this morning:

RoXXX: Welcome to Cingular Wireless Premier Support, my name is RoXXX. I am reading your question and will be right with you.
RoXXX: It was offered for pre-order in error, and was removed shortly after. However, it should be available by the end of next week at the latest.

Thought
#8. November 28th, 2006, at 10:31 PM.

Cingular will continue their behavior as long as they do not suffer any consequences for it. They probably won’t in this case.

Look at all of this pre-release hype…the folks at Cingular couldn’t ask for more pre-launch anticipation.

Bottom line: they’ll sell a ton of these regardless, and still feel pretty good about themselves.

It will be interesting to see the marketing campaign that Cingular puts behind the Pearl…and if it is nearly as good as the one they have for the BlackJack. Cingular does know how to do large scale marketing, and if they give the Pearl a really great marketing campaign, they can at least partially redeem themselves with all of us BB fans.

bigfoot
#9. November 28th, 2006, at 10:55 PM.

AS I previously stated, the pearl will be available to the public on December 1st, following a demonstration by cingular for the rep’s on November 30th in Manhattan. That is a fact, not conjecture. Friday morning, go crazy.

Thought
#10. November 28th, 2006, at 11:16 PM.

It will be ironic if after all this time, when the initial rumors were of the Dec 1 launch date, that it turns out to really be that time frame.

This only makes me wonder if Cingular wanted these rumors of an earlier release date out there…in spite of any criticism they are taking, the bottom line is that anticipation has increased.

Carmine
#12. November 29th, 2006, at 1:37 PM.

I just got out of a Cingular store and the rep there said they were supposed to have the Pearl on Black Friday but then they pushed the release and then he said that he has no clue when they will be getting any.

Adam
#13. November 29th, 2006, at 3:45 PM.

You’re an idiot Robb. T-Mobile has exclusive rights to sell the Pearl until December first. Relax, you’ll get the pearl soon enough. Putz!!

Arthur
#15. December 1st, 2006, at 12:00 PM.

Cingular’s Pearl is out today and I just got mine.
It’s great looking, much better than the t-mo version.
Get over it Cingular haters……Cingular has it all.