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Poll: How Will Verizon Cripple The BlackBerry Thunder?

by Ronen Halevy on Jul 16th, 2008 at 7:30 am EST
12 Comments »
 

Over the last few weeks, we have been hearing quite a bit about the upcoming BlackBerry Thunder. The point that many people, including myself, have glossed over is the fact that it is coming to Verizon.

Verizon is notorious for trying to monetize every feature on their phones. If they can’t monetize it, they try to cripple it. It’s part of their motto. They even cover behind the party line of “protecting the security and privacy of its customers.” They started it with Bluetooth and now they are currently doing it with GPS. Even if you pay them $10 a month, you still can’t access your device’s GPS without VZnavigator.

So this just begs the question: what will Verizon do to RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry device? Will RIM have the balls to tell Verizon to back off? We want to know what you think…

[poll id="2"]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 and is filed under Polls.
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12 Comments to “Poll: How Will Verizon Cripple The BlackBerry Thunder?”

  1. Posted by: DavidB
    July 16, 2008 at 9:25 am EST

    the party line of “protecting the security and privacy of it’s customers.”
    Hey, THAT sounds familiar!!! )
    I think it’s NO SECRET how I voted….
    Damn, if only Verizon didn’t have such great coverage where I need it, and great data speeds, I would dump them in a New York minute.

  2. Posted by: KevinK
    July 16, 2008 at 10:34 am EST

    I know verizon will probably cripple some feature of the phone. But since this particular device is being created exclusively for Verizon (similar to the iphone/ATT deal) then maybe Verizon will see the light and realize that in order to compete in the touchscreen market (which they obviously feel is a profitable venture…iPHONE!!!), then they will need to offer all the features it does and for FREE aswell. If they don’t then the device will flop. Hopefully they realize that. Verizon is hoping to steal some of the touchscreen market from other companies and that just won’t happen if you not only have to pay for a data plan to make the device usefull but also $20 in other crap to make it do the same stuff that the iphone will do for free.

  3. Posted by: DavidB
    July 16, 2008 at 11:52 am EST

    I don’t share your confidence Kevin. One look at how iPhone 3G ATT customers are “accepting” the new higher plan fees for the 3G vs. original would tell someone like Verizon that they can get a “premium” for this device. Also keep in mind that TECHNICALLY only applications approved by Apple will be permitted on the iPhone and offered via iTunes store. Will it be acceptable to you if Verizon allows GPS applications on the Thunder, but only ones THEY sell? Will you be willing to pay either a one-time fee or monthly fee for a GPS enabled application (on the “cool” Thunder), when you COULD use Blackberry Maps or Google Maps or ANY GPS enabled application on a Sprint Blackberry FOR FREE?

  4. Posted by: Nikolaus
    July 16, 2008 at 11:52 am EST

    The few of you who voted Verizon has learned their lesson must work for Verizon’s Ministry of Truth.

  5. Posted by: Todd
    July 16, 2008 at 11:53 am EST

    You are right – “it’s the signal stupid” – is the party line. As long as people will stay on their system, and pay for VZ Navigator so they have SOMETHING to use as a map, Verizon will get rewarded despite the behavior.

    You could say the real culprits here are their competition – why can’t AT&T have coverage that is just as good, and speeds for data that are just as fast? Without that, where are the Verizon Blackberry users supposed to go?

  6. Posted by: Brian
    July 16, 2008 at 1:13 pm EST

    The phone was designed to be a Verizon exclusive. If they didn’t want a particular feature being available to customers then why would they have it included in the phone at all? Just temm RIM not to unclude it and lower the cost of the hardware. GPS only for VZNavigator is possibility though.

  7. Posted by: Joseph
    July 16, 2008 at 8:03 pm EST

    Well I don’t think RIMM is going to *not* create features because of Verizon – especially when it’ll make them the bad guy and Verizon can just blame RIMM when customers complain. Also, it’s a Verizon exclusive, but if it’s being released in other countries with other providers, it makes sense to have all the features and the various providers can do what they want. All RIMM needs to do is modify the radio to work on whatever frequencies.

  8. Posted by: Brian
    July 17, 2008 at 2:58 am EST

    It’s not like the Bold where they just get first crack. Thunder is a LIFETIME exclusive to Verizon and Vodaphone, so NO other carrier will get it EVER unless by some off chance sales bomb big time which they wont. There would be no need to install wifi if they don’t intend to allow us to use it. GPS may indeed be married to VZNavitagtor but who knows.

  9. Posted by: DavidB
    July 17, 2008 at 9:15 am EST

    It wouldn’t surprise ME Brian if Verizon is somehow able to figure out a way to monetize WiFi use. They’ll offer you some sort of deal to allow data use over WiFi (in lieu of EV-DO) and charge you some fee for the “benefit” of that WiFi data use not being charged against you “soft cap” they impose on their so-called “unlimited” data plan. Sorta like Sprint is going to offer femtocells to offload your voice calling from their radio towers and onto your home broadband connection and charge you a fee for the benefit.

    Let’s face it, carriers are going to monetize EVERY SINGLE FEATURE of a smartphone device that they can figure out a way to do that keeps us lemmings paying them. There’s not ONE CARRIER (here in the USA at least) that’s any better in that respect than the rest.

    • Posted by: Duane Wills
      March 2, 2009 at 12:15 am EST

      “Sorta like Sprint is going to offer femtocells to offload your voice calling from their radio towers and onto your home broadband connection and charge you a fee for the benefit.”

      T-Mobile has this service, too. It is worth it, though. First of all, regardless of HOW you connect to the network, you’re still connecting and still require expensive infrastructure on their end. If you don’t want to pay for a cell phone, build your own multi-billion dollar network.

  10. Posted by: David
    March 29, 2009 at 9:38 pm EST

    What Verizon is doing is illegal under the monopoly laws in the U.S. They block 3rd party software so they can sell their crappy VZnavigator. Even Microsoft during the U.S. v. MSFT case were not accused of blocking other browsers from being used completely. They merely bundled InternetExplorer with Windows. In this case Verizon is BLOCKING Google Maps from working on the BlackBerry Curve. How the f$#@ do these a$$holes get away with this??

    • Posted by: Duane Wills
      April 12, 2009 at 10:21 am EST

      The issue with IE was how Microsoft was trying to use the fact that Windows == Operating System to make it so IE == Web Browser. Verizon is safe because Verizon =/= Cell Network. The gray area is the space where Verizon IS the only carrier, but who is going to blame them for that?