After listening to RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie talk in yesterdays, one of the things he said that kind of stood out to me was that we may start to see plans for voice only without data as more carriers start to offer the BlackBerry Pearl. That’s right, a BlackBerry without the email.
Now, I am on the record for questioning what a BlackBerry without email is really good at, however, this was before we ever heard anything about the BlackBerry Pearl. I may have to reevaluate my position on BlackBerrys as stand alone mobile phones because the Pearl has come a long way to bridge the gap to say the least.
One of the sticky threads over on the BlackBerry section of Howard Forums is about using a BlackBerry without the data plan and seeing how over 14,000 people have viewed it tells me that Jim may be on to something with voice only plans for consumer oriented BlackBerry devices.
What do you think?
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I think it could work if BlackBerry improves on some of the features that are in the Pearl. Fortunately for BlackBerry, just about all the MP3 playing phones that you can get in the U.S. suck, with the exception maybe of the LG Chocolate, but since it is only on Verizon anyway no harm no foul.
My question is will the price of the phone be more than $200 bucks without a BlackBerry plan? That might make it too expensive for the people that might buy it.
Does the Pearl have or has any 3rd party written a automatic email retrieval app for
the Pearl or any other BB so that the BB can just use a standard data plan and still
retrieve PPP email?
I think this would be a great idea. What is keeping me from switching from my SideKick to a BlackBerry Pearl is the fact that the extra BlackBerry service costs so much.
I do believe that there is a market for this.
Plus, there is this aspect: some will buy a BB with voice only plan and be attracted into the BB “family” that way, and then later on add on the data plan.
Another way to look at it, is what do you lose without a data plan? Mobile web, email, and attachements is really about it. You can still SMS and use it as a PDA that synchs with Outlook, without that horrid T9 text engine that takes me 10 minutes to type “I will be there in 5 minutes” I think a BB without a data plan is very realistic, and we can expect it on the consumer models soon.
There is a market for it but the prices must come down.
This is a common misconception that smart-phones are useless without data connectivity. In fact, I use mine to sync with Outlook calendar, contacts, and tasks via active sync on my BlackBerry 8900. I know others who do just as I do, and have no data plan either.
Cellphone users require data plan now with smartphone. We need to put a stop to this. Take a stand write someone to stop this like the BBB.