1980’s all over again
Have you heard the hype? The Blackberry Pearl is coming! It’s all over the web, in so many of the local papers and all over the blogs.. It’s almost like the second coming.
Granted, it’s a sleek looking phone. I’ve often wondered what all those crackberries are doing on their blackberries.. on the metro, restaurants, elevators.
So I did some digging. What makes the Blackberry such a fantastic tool is email, more specifically, push email. Which is to say, Blackberry software on a server has the ability to push email to your phone. Your phone does not have to poll or query the mail server to see if there is mail. This saves bandwidth and also speeds up retrieval of mail.
The Pearl, if you haven’t already looked, resembles many of the latest phones: MP3 player, camera, thin, sexy.. etc
Rogers, is supposed to debut this phone in October. I have heard rumors of October 2nd.
There is however, a dirty little secret to Blackberry’s and the Pearl: The data/voice plans.
Take a look at Roger’s Data/Voice plans for Montreal
Did you see that? Didja? $60 a month for 1mb and 200 minutes of talk time. 1mb. That’s less then a floppy! And 200 minutes of talk time? I can burn through that in a day.
Want something that makes a little more sense? Grab the $90 plan, that gives you a whopping (I’m being sarcastic) 25 megs and 350 minutes plus unlimited weekends and weeknights.. There’s a catch there too, your evenings start at 20:00.
Clearly, we are in the stone ages of data plans. The technology is there. The transfer speeds aren’t half bad (and are even better over at Telus) but the pricing, is simply disturbing.
And it’s not much better over at the other carriers.
So what’s a nerd to do who wants mobile email and a cell phone? Get a phone that supports WiFi (802.11). They exist , but of course no local carrier carries them. Why would they want consumers to bypass their networks (at those insane data rates) and hop on a free WiFi network at their hotel, airport, cafe etc ?
You have to grab one on EBay or other various vendors. Not cheap either. But the money you spend on the phone, you’ll get back knowing you aren’t paying stupid rates for data on your cell.
It’s time the cell phone carriers get real.
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Funny, I recently searched for a good multi-purpose cell phone (phone, agenda, e-mail). I found the Pearl interesting but I was also shocked when I saw the data plans… that’s in-sane ! and what am I doing if a jerk sends me a 2mb attachment ???
Then I asked to my friends in Asia and Europe what was hype there. One the uber-geek weapon is the HTC TyTn/O2 Trion/Qtek 9600 (all the same in facts). Small enough, full keyboard and… wifi as you said !
But it’s not the same price. The pearl is 550$ (already a high end phone) on eBay, the HTC is 750$ (you almost have a laptop for this price… in fact it’s almost a laptop :))
Just a comparaison : in France, a Blackberry plan with orange (not the cheapest) is 40 euros/month (same price as Rogers) with an included 60MB ! That sounds more realistic ! As usually, North America is really really lagging for this.
The rates are much better in the states too.
It’s scandalous really. They hide the WiFi phones and charge absurd rates. I’ve talked to a few who work at Rogers and there’s no sign of it getting better, if anything, it will get worse.
[insert “drool” emoticaon here]
That’s very slick phone/PDA.
I’d have to agree in that Data Plans likely won’t get better for some time to come. Canada is behind the times as far as technology goes in general… they’ll have to rethink rates as wi-fi phones make their way here more and more (and people start opting for those instead of “regular” phones)
Also, I like how they sort of referrence “Pirates of the Caribbean”! “BLACKberry PEARL“, very similar to the “Black Pearl” boat from the movies. Even the website seems to use water effects and the like.
I still remember the Fido all-you-can-eat unlimited data plan that cost only 50 dollars per month. I was going to get that when Rogers bought Fido and the plan magically disappeared.
Compared to Europe mobile telephony is exceptionally expensive, here in Canada and in the US.
I’m lucky enough to have a Fido HipTop that provides me with truly unlimited data for only $20 per month, but Rogers is now in the process of killing that as well.
If they think consumers will jump onboard with devices like the Pearl when data rates are so rediculously high, I sure as hell hope that they get a wakeup call when nobody buys this device….or buys it and promptly returns it when they realize how little they are getting (data wise) for so much.