Have you ever noticed that many of the carrier specific applications offered on new mobile devices are absent from the BlackBerry devices specific to those carriers. T-Mobile’s My Faves on the BlackBerry Pearl is one notable exception, however, a lot of the things you can do on a $50 mobile device cannot be done on a $350 BlackBerry.
One argument was that hardware limitations prevented some of the rich multimedia content from being offered on BlackBerry devices. There is probably some truth to that, however, this is no longer the case for the BlackBerry 8700, 7130, Pearl, and any new BlackBerrys that will follow.
Will next-gen BlackBerry users be able use Cingular’s Music Store, or V Cast from Verizon? Will we be able to watch Sprint.TV? If RIM is serious about making a move in the consumer market, their devices need to offer the same features as consumer oriented mobile devices do.
Interesting question…
Re Verizon’s VCast…that is a feature more for their standard phones, not their smartphones…none of their smartphones can use this feature, as it is assumed that with a smartphone one can access the full internet, not a walled off garden approach to it.
I don’t know much about Cingular’s music store, except that most music stores by carriers seem to be a little lacking in the usability dept. I doubt if the iPhone will want to access Cingular’s music store. More importantly, if I were RIM, I’d want to access the iTunes store.