BlackBerry KickStart: T-Mobile launch and a whole bunch of specs!
You didn't think we'd actually leave you hangin', did you? To follow up on on yesterday's post of the BlackBerry KickStart photos, we've got here a couple more images of the phone with T-Mobile branding and some interesting details on the physical design attributes.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second beat in a fast-moving leak cycle: after the first leaked KickStart photos surfaced, this follow-up adds T-Mobile branding and physical design details, effectively confirming the carrier before any official announcement. It sits alongside BGR's parallel scoop of a live shot of the touchscreen BlackBerry Thunder, showing RIM quietly prototyping multiple new form factors at once in 2008.
First-order effects
- T-Mobile gains a branded, presumably lower-cost BlackBerry ahead of launch, giving it a differentiated device against rivals while RIM extends the brand into a new clamshell form factor.
- The leak itself becomes news: T-Mobile's launch plans and the KickStart's design attributes are public before either company controls the messaging.
Second-order effects
- Carrier-exclusive BlackBerry launches like AT&T's earlier 8820 set up a competitive pattern; T-Mobile landing an exclusive-ish device pressures other carriers to lock in their own RIM hardware or discounts.
- Leak-driven coverage forces RIM and carriers to treat unofficial reveals as de facto pre-marketing, shaping how they time official announcements and embargo press materials.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, RIM's mid-2000s dominance rests on broadening beyond the classic candybar QWERTY into flips and touchscreens — a diversification that later defines its struggle as touch-first platforms take over.
- The leak economy around unreleased handsets hardens into a structural feature of the industry, with blogs functioning as an uncontrolled pre-announcement channel carriers and OEMs must plan around.
The trend: Pre-launch device leaks are becoming an unavoidable, quasi-official stage of the smartphone launch cycle, forcing carriers and manufacturers to plan announcements around what bloggers have already exposed.