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AT&T Crippling BlackBerry for iPhone?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the new-sheriff-in-town dept.

0xdeadbeef writes "BlackBerryCool got a tip that not only was AT&T removing GPS functionality from their version of the BlackBerry 8820, they're doing it so it won't show up the iPhone. While carriers crippling phones to stop them from competing with pay-per-use services is nothing new, this might be the first time they've done it to make their other products seem less diminished."

8 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. sigh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The new AT&T feels alot like the old AT&T.

    1. Re:sigh... by DoraLives · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > The new AT&T feels alot like the old AT&T.

      Trust me on this one ..... it's worse.

      --
      Is it fascism yet?
    2. Re:sigh... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The new AT&T feels alot like the old AT&T.
      I take your point, but there's something new in this type of behavior that we're seeing in all sorts of corporations. Instead of the traditional "free market" belief that "you give the customer what they want" and "supply and demand", there's a sense that we're the ones who are obliged to give the corporations what they want.

      Let's face it, it's been some years now since consumers had anything like the power wielded by corporations. They pay the government and the government works for them. We, in turn, exist to give the corporations what they want, which is profits. Our desires don't enter into the equation.

      The "free market", if it ever existed, is a deeply flawed concept. No matter how its done, the story always ends the same way. We are the consumables.
      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. USA - rest of world by spectrokid · · Score: 5, Informative

    And in the mean time, in the rest of the world, crippled phones DON'T EXIST. Because the phone you use is independent from the carrier. Welcome to open standards (GSM).

    --

    10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then

  3. Improved services attract consumers by Technician · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Many carriers think they are a monopoly and don't want to have their low end rob the profit from the high end.

    They are forgetting something. There is competition. They should strive to make all of their products and services more valuable to consumers.

    Here is what we have so far..
    1 An i-phone which is cool who's bill comes in a box shipped by UPS Oh and by the way is has a monopoly carrier.

    2 A Blackberry. They are obtainable from several carriers, but AT&T cripples them worse than other carriers.

    3 A Blackberry on another carrier.

    4.. The rest of the market

    If you avoid #1 due to the carrier issues and monster bills, you are now likely to avoid #2 for both the service and carrier reputation. Just what were they thinking? They don't hold a monopoly on Blackberries.

    http://www.bbhub.com/2006/09/18/rating-the-major-b lackberry-carrier-retailers-who-gets-it-and/

    --
    The truth shall set you free!
  4. Sure, that's exactly it. Yeah. by jht · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As long as carriers dictate what phones do or don't do, this is no big deal - it's just typical. I suspect the GPS functionality lockdown has nothing to do with iPhone, it's probably just that AT&T wants to sell their Telenav service and make money from it. The iPhone really doesn't compete in the same segment as Blackberries of any stripe, and they sell at a non-subsidized price - GPS or the lack thereof isn't going to make a hell of a lot of difference in the Blackberry/iPhone purchase decision.

    It's not like this is rare. Heck, Verizon's locked down the OBEX capabilities on most of their Bluetooth phones so they can sell their wireless sync service. Even Apple had to bite the bullet here - since there's no subsidy on the phone and Apple pockets all the money, don't you think they'd love to sell unlocked iPhones that would work on every GSM carrier? Or sell CDMA models through Verizon or Sprint? Of course they would. But to get AT&T to sell 'em and modify the network (build out EDGE capacity and add the Visual Voicemail system) they had to agree to a multi-year exclusivity deal.

    So basically, the 8820 being modified because of Apple? I call BS. And if you want your Blackberry and you want it on AT&T, find yourself an unlocked version and just DIY. It's GSM, you can do that. It'll be unsubsidized, but at least that way it'll be a fair fight with the iPhone.

    Wait - even though iPhone is unsubsidized it's still locked. Never mind!

    --
    -- Josh Turiel
    "2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
  5. Verizon too! by dimer0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Comon, this isn't just AT&T. My *Verizon* 8830 phone has been "crippled" for about 2 weeks before the iPhone came out.

    I called Verizon and inquired why my phone doesn't have the GPS turned on, and after getting to some 'data expert', I was told that the reason is Blackberry won't turn over some API or something to allow Verizon to enable this.

    Now, I doubt that's really the reason, but again - this isn't some AT&T and/or Apple stunt.

  6. Summary is Wrong - RTFA by HumanEmulator · · Score: 5, Informative

    The summary makes it sound like GPS is being removed from the phone, but the article says in first paragraph "...the US carrier has been successful in their attempts to lockdown the GPS functionality in their upcoming BlackBerry 8820 so that the only functioning 3rd party software will be TeleNav."

    Not the same thing. "Only functioning 3rd party software", means you should be able to use TeleNav and any 1st party software (ie. whatever RIM has.)

    Note: TMobile.com doesn't advertise (or even list as a feature) the GPS functionality on the BlackBerry 8800 that it is selling.

    Of course there's no doubt this unbiased reporting from "BLACKBERRYCOOL" written by someone who admits to interviewing people while drunk (http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/05/09/004387/) is totally accurate.