Wirelessnorth.ca

Less than encouraging signs these week from “Canada’s national cell phone” as RIM’s latest Bold launch is looking sadly timid. All signs point to RIM struggling with early manufacturing/delivery woes with the device, a not uncommon problem. Your guess is as good as ours as to which particular component or supplier might be at fault. Mark McQueen has the perspective from the heart of Toronto’s Bay street.

…One journalist observed that it wasn’t anywhere near as exciting as the iPhone launch. The truth is, BlackBerry customers aren’t lining up to buy them ’cause they aren’t in stock yet.

It looks like our August 12th scoop that the Bold will be “available in a couple” of weeks will pan out to be accurate in the end. Can you imagine Apple launching the iPod without product in stock? What a PR disaster that would’ve been…

The form factor feels very solid, much more so than the 8700. The screen is a bit shorter than one might expect, but the keyboard feels like bubblewrap when you tap a key. Not quite the squishy 8800 keys, but not really any better, either.

The fellow next to me and I agreed that it just didn’t feel right. Maybe it was this particular demo, and a real “suitable for ownership” model would feel more sure-footed. But I doubt it.

To get tens of thousands of white collar workers in Toronto, Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere to prematurely upgrade for several hundred dollars down, plus a 3 year plan extention, will likely take more than this hardware offering, I’m sad to say. It looks good, but doesn’t drive quite as well. At least based upon a quick “drive by”.

The sophisticated testing labs at WirelessNorth.ca stand ready for either RIM or Rogers to send us over a unit for our own thorough evaluation.

LINK: I [don’t] want my Bold on The Wellington Financial Blog