I have been thinking a lot lately about the BlackBerry 8800. It is kind of hard not to with the official announcement of the BlackBerry 8800 and the fact that the BlackBerry 8800 could hit Cingular store shelves in less than a week.

Now that we’ve had time to look at the features and specifications of the BlackBerry I wonder just how well it will sell? It’s not that the BlackBerry 8800 isn’t a good device and all, but, does it really offer enough over the BlackBerry 8700 or 7130 to warrant upgrading to it.

I know that many business users say they don’t need a digital camera, however, no camera, combined with no Wi-Fi, make me see the BlackBerry 8800 as the device that I pass up on waiting for the next new model BlackBerry to come out.


This is just my opinion, however, unlike the BlackBerry Pearl, the BlackBerry 8800 doesn’t really do anything groundbreakingly different than older model BlackBerrys like take pictures. Sure, the 8800 has a MP3 player. If the BlackBerry Media Player that comes on the BlackBerry 8800 is anything like the one on the Pearl, people really into listening to music on the go will continue to carry their Ipods.

Other than that, you can continue to send and receive email like you can on any other BlackBerry. The 8800 is much thinner than any other full QWERTY keyboard BlackBerry but I don’t imagine too many BlackBerry 8700 users saying that they are going to switch because the 8800 is so thin. I admit that the removable memory is kind of cool, but, once again, not enough to make me move to the 8800 now when all rumors indicate that a newer version is just a few months away.

Maybe this isn’t a good analogy but, to me, the BlackBerry 8800 is to the BlackBerry 8700 what the BlackBerry 7105t is to the BlackBerry 7100t. If I were on Cingular and about to get a new BlackBerry with a full QWERTY keyboard I would get the BlackBerry 8800. I wouldn’t, however, upgrade from a BlackBerry 8700 and I definitely wouldn’t switch carriers to get it.

BlackBerry 8800