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

By: BlackBerry 8800 Now Available On Cingular’s Site With Free Guaranteed Overnight Shipping | RIMarkable | The official, unofficial BlackBerry Weblog

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 05:26:18 +0000

[...] must say that I have been very critical in the passed on Cingular’s BlackBerry launches, however, they are proving me wrong on this [...]

By: Arthur

Arthur — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:00:49 +0000

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.

By: Robb Dunewood

Robb Dunewood — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 21:55:17 +0000

The name calling is kind of childish but to your points, It does kind of look like that December 1st date will be the day. You may have noticed that I asked the question ‘why yesterday’ and followed up with reasons why dec. 1 made more sense.

The fact, remains, however, that Cingular did leak November 21st. This could have all been part of the master plan to kick the buzz machine into gear knowing like blogs like this would jump all over it and if so, I bit hook, line, and sinker.

One other thing, mistake or not, Cingular did sell BlackBerry Pearls yesterday, even if only for a while. Cingular may suck and soon lose their #1 spot as the biggest wireless provider in the nation, but, they are a multi-billion dollar company with a bunch of lawerys that would have never let the Pearl go on sale if they legally weren’t permitted to… Mistake or no mistake.

As far as me getting a Pearl soon, probably won’t be till summer time next year. I am with Verizon.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 20:45:56 +0000

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!!

By: Carmine

Carmine — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 18:37:52 +0000

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.

By: Robb Dunewood

Robb Dunewood — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:06:03 +0000

You know what they say. Any plubicity is good plubicity.

By: Thought

Thought — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 04:16:21 +0000

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.

By: bigfoot

bigfoot — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 03:55:28 +0000

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.

By: Thought

Thought — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 03:31:38 +0000

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.

By: Robb Dunewood

Robb Dunewood — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 01:18:01 +0000

The really sad thing is that this type if internal discombobulation within Cingular doesn’t surprise me that much.