AT&T Brings Out The BlackBerry 8820
Look at what the cat dragged in. It's the BlackBerry I've been waiting for, the 8820. GPS and Wi-Fi. Can it get any better? Once it moves over to T-Mobile, then yes. Specs here, but I'm sure you know them already.
Context & Ripple Effects
The 8820's arrival closes a loop opened last month, when reporting claimed AT&T had neutered the BlackBerry 8820 to keep from stepping on its exclusive iPhone launch. Shipping it with both GPS and Wi-Fi puts RIM's most connected Curve-class handset on the same carrier that holds the iPhone in the US.
The T-Mobile angle in the writeup is explicitly the author's speculation, not confirmed — though it has logic behind it: T-Mobile launched its Hotspot@Home Wi-Fi calling service in June 2007, so a Wi-Fi-equipped BlackBerry is a natural fit for that network if RIM ever ports it.
First-order effects
- AT&T customers can now buy a single handset combining GPS and Wi-Fi on the same carrier that exclusively sells the iPhone, giving AT&T two flagship smartphone lines instead of one.
Second-order effects
- If the rumored T-Mobile version materializes, it would land on the carrier best positioned to monetize Wi-Fi handsets through Hotspot@Home, while other carriers face pressure to accept full-featured RIM devices rather than carrier-stripped variants like the one reported in August.
Third-order effects
- Wi-Fi becoming a standard smartphone radio shifts bargaining power toward handset makers: devices that route traffic over hotspots are less captive to any single carrier's network, eroding the leverage exclusivity deals were designed to protect.
The trend: Smartphones are absorbing Wi-Fi and GPS as baseline features, weakening the carrier-stripping and exclusivity model that defined US handset launches in 2007.