Why Don’t CDMA BlackBerrys Ever Come Out On Sprint First?

JHP2
#2. October 10th, 2007, at 12:01 AM.

Having worked at Sprint and in a channel that was business exclusive and focused on smart devices and connection cards, I can say that I do not doubt that there may be some special sauce from Verizon to RIM. However, the reason given by RIM in internal meetings focused on two key areas: The number of BB’s that a carrier had sold in the past as an indicator of future sales and Verizon’s strong presence in the corporate market where BB’s are used. For all it’s foibles, VZW is strong in the business space. Also note that Sprint was late to the BB party. Until 2005, perhaps 2004, Sprint did not sell the BB and still sells far fewer than ATT and VZW. Until that time, Sprint focused on the Treo in the converged device arena.

hellno
#3. October 10th, 2007, at 1:21 PM.

vzw sells far fewer BB’s than At&t and T-Mo and the rest of the globe using standard, open, global GSM technology. Which is why RIM makes cdma devices after thoughts which come more than a year after their GSM brethren.

JHP2
#4. October 10th, 2007, at 2:05 PM.

hellno,

Well ATT does. But VZW is far ahead of Sprint. VZW used ot sell more BB’s per day than Sprint was selling in a month at one point. Not sure about t-mo, but ATT is the numero uno provider of BB’s in the US. T-Mo benefits from the WW GSM adoption. Notice that they are usually behind ATT by some time. As I have pointed out several times, ATT gets BB’s first due to past and present sales and, as you have pointed out, GSM, which allows for WW roll-outs with relatively few changes ot the hardware.

Interestingly, ATT benefits not only from current sales but their large install base if BB’s which reaches back to their success selling them on Mobitex, if i recall correctly.