Wayne Schulz

The BlackBerry 9700 launched last week and Amazon had it for $199 on contract. Today I’ve noticed that the price has moved down $20 and I won’t be surprised if it soon hits $99. The problem with BlackBerry devices is their browser and capacity to run applications both suck that for years they’ve survived on making slight modifications to existing design, re-packaging it as a new product, leaking images to blogs, building hype, and selling their loyal users essentially the same smartphone in a separate case. With a strong suite of competing phones  available BlackBerry’s strong growth period may be up. Verizon introduced my current favorite phone, the Droid, at a nearly unheard of Verizon price of $199 after contract. Other phones will probably follow suit in the $199 to $149 price range that BlackBerry had built a niche of selling into.  And unlike current BlackBerry’s these phones will have the capacity to run applications without constantly running out of memory. The moral of the story? Expect to see more discount BlackBerry devices roll out closer to $99 — and hope that RIM is able to update their operating system to be more competitive or BlackBerry on the consumer side may languish in the $99 bargain bin.

BlackBerry Bold 9700 $149 at Amazon

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About Wayne Schulz

Wayne Schulz is a CT CPA and consultant. In his spare time he enjoys hiking, New York City, blogging, technology and searching for the perfect smartphone. He lives in Glastonbury CT with his two children. Contact Wayne by email at wayne@wayneschulz.com. (Important: We are not the manufacturer or seller of any items we've blogged so unfortunately we are unable to provide support or answer questions about them).