Right now the only thing that limits VZW is the far greater prevalence of GSM worldwide, which limits handset selection for VZW.

Once that is gone, we’ll see how well ATT will hold up.

But yeah, I agree. All the hype for the Bold is practically gone. I think the climax of the hype was seeing John Mayer with a Bold for a test drive.

As much as I’d like to agree, I can’t see RIM walking away from ‘any’ carrier (heck, they even sell through TMO here in the States). The corporate world goes by the service company, and then the phone in most cases. My previous employer was an AT&T shop…will always be one. If it means waiting on the Bold, then that’s what they’ll most likely do (they all use BB’s). RIM may save their ‘best’ release for VZW (like the Storm), but eventually it will get around. Pressure from the corporate side directly to RIM will open those doors eventually…

And though the iPhone is tied to AT&T right now…I wouldn’t be surprised if things change a few years down the road when VZW hits LTE. It’s going to be really interesting to see both AT&T and VZW on LTE.

It may be true that finally RIM is taking the advice offered on this blog: hitching their star more tightly to Verizon than ATT, esp now that VZW will be the largest carrier in the US. Robb and I, among others have always believed that RIM’s biggest opportunity was with VZW and its very loyal client base, and it’s reputation for network reliability.

We may be seeing ATT becoming an Apple shop, with VZW being a RIM BB shop. Only time will tell.

I agree with an earlier comment…they are probably counting on execs and businesses who will spend whatever to get the latest and greatest.

However, in this economy, I don’t quite know that this assumption will be true.

I still think the way that this device launch was handled by ATT/RIM will really undercut its sales. But who knows…the holiday season is approaching, and this device is still pretty neat…

On Wall Street, no. 800k isn’t that big of a number. Especially since the number reflects the anticipated, upgraded iPhone vs. zero new releases on the BB side with the consumer market (and some corporate companies) waiting for the new releases such as the Bold and Storm. And yes, it is ‘acceptable’. If you listen to small time analysts from crap brokerage firms, you’re going to get a load of it. That’s why their still small.

PS – I’m a huge fan of Apple and love their product (MacBook Pro, iPod, iMac, etc., I use them all except the iPhone), but look at the technical reality. I worked 10 years on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs was one of them. You can knock RIM however you’d like, but Apple has had the same 50%+ drop as well. And I can also say that many of my clients in the IT world are looking to pull back from any iPhone testing or migrations that they’ve done due to feedback. It’s a great device, but more so to the consumer market. If they pulled out a keyboard and somehow enhanced the security to the level RIM has, they’d have the hands down number one device out there, with the great Apple name to boot. SAP, Oracle, etc. have and still are writing applications for both the BB and the iPhone. IBM has pushed heavily toward the BB. Application inheritance will play an important piece down the road for some companies as this sector grows, and I’m sure both companies will have a part in it.