[Blake]

http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pi...rticleid=26072

AT&T Customers to Enter a 'Bold' New Wireless World

Breakthrough BlackBerry Smartphone Is Coming to Nation's Fastest 3G Network; Arrives in Stores Nov. 4

Dallas, Texas, October 22, 2008

Waterloo, Ontario — AT&T customers will be entering a bold new wireless world with the launch of the BlackBerry® Bold™, a breakthrough 3G BlackBerry® smartphone that operates on the nation's fastest 3G network and is the first to support HSDPA networks around the world, including in Japan and Korea. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Research In Motion (Nasdaq:RIMM; TSX:RIM) announced today that the highly anticipated BlackBerry Bold smartphone will be available in the United States for as low as $299.99¹ on Tuesday, Nov. 4, in AT&T retail stores nationwide, through www.att.com and select national retailers, as well as through AT&T's business-to-business sales teams.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone, which is being introduced in the United States only for AT&T customers, can be used in the most countries abroad, including more than 60 with 3G networks. AT&T is the world's leading provider of BlackBerry services.

Bold Design
The BlackBerry Bold smartphone's design and performance live up to its name. The elegant smartphone features a lustrous black exterior, satin chrome-finished frame and stylish, leatherette backplate with a stunning half-VGA (480 x 320 at 217 ppi) color display for eye-popping visuals and a newly designed full QWERTY keyboard for exceptionally fast and easy typing. On the inside, the BlackBerry Bold features built-in GPS and Wi-Fi®, a powerful new 624 MHz mobile processor that provides impressive performance, more storage memory than ever before — 1 GB on board and up to 16 GB via its microSD/SDHC expansion slot — and a rich set of multimedia capabilities, including an advanced media player for music, videos and photos and a 2 megapixel camera with built-in flash, zoom and video recording, as well as an optimized Web-browsing experience with desktop-style depiction.

"The BlackBerry Bold is the best BlackBerry smartphone ever, backed by the nation's fastest 3G network and the hands-down best international coverage of any carrier," said Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive officer of AT&T Mobility. "The BlackBerry Bold is the complete package, providing customers with an absolutely outstanding mobile experience whether doing e-mail, browsing the Web, viewing streaming video or simply making a phone call. And it is being introduced in the U.S. only from AT&T."

Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO at Research In Motion, said: "The development of the BlackBerry Bold smartphone was an ambitious undertaking, and we focused intensely on the things that are most important to mobile customers when developing this best-in-class smartphone for HSDPA networks around the world. The BlackBerry Bold exudes quality in everything from its stunning display sharpness and incredible keyboard to its premium phone performance and sophisticated software applications. It provides an extraordinary mobile communications and multimedia experience, and we are very proud to introduce this breakthrough smartphone in the United States together with AT&T."

AT&T Services
In addition to the renowned BlackBerry productivity applications — including phone, e-mail, messaging, organizer and browser — the BlackBerry Bold from AT&T will boast such AT&T services as:

* Simultaneous Voice and Data Capabilities — When connected to AT&T's 3G network, customers can conduct a phone conversation and at the same time check e-mail, browse the Web or use another data application, including when tethered to a notebook computer.
* AT&T Navigator Global Edition — Powered by TeleNav, the only GPS-based service available from a U.S. wireless carrier to provide international navigation capabilities. AT&T customers can get spoken or text-based turn-by-turn directions with automatic missed turn rerouting and a local business finder service in 20 countries.
* Seamless Wi-Fi — Allows AT&T customers who turn on the BlackBerry Bold smartphone's Wi-Fi feature — 802.11 a/b/g — to connect automatically to home or campus networks. AT&T customers also will be able to access more than 17,000 AT&T hot spots nationwide, including nearly 7,000 participating Starbucks locations plus thousands more restaurants, airports, hotels and other convenient locations across the U.S.
* CV — CV (Cellular Video) from AT&T gives viewers access to thousands of video clips — news, sports, weather, entertainment and more — directly on a BlackBerry Bold smartphone via streaming video.
* AT&T Mobile Music Services — An industry leader in mobile music, AT&T boasts the largest catalog of offerings available today, giving customers mobile access to enjoy XM Radio Mobile™, song identification through MusicID, music videos through MobiTV and over-the-air access to the extensive music databases of Napster Mobile® and eMusic® — just to name a few.

AT&T Navigator, CV, AT&T Mobile Music services and more than 90,000 additional choices are available through AT&T MEdia Mall directly from the BlackBerry Bold or online.

E-mail and More
Like all BlackBerry smartphones, the BlackBerry Bold gives users the industry's leading mobile messaging solution. It works with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, which enables advanced security and IT administration within IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Microsoft® Exchange and Novel® GroupWise® environments, as well as BlackBerry® Professional Software for small businesses. It also works with BlackBerry® Internet Service, which gives users push-based access to as many as 10 supported work or personal e-mail accounts. Customers can also download and edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files using the preloaded DataViz® Documents to Go® software suite. Beyond e-mail, the BlackBerry Bold will support a wide range of business and lifestyle applications.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone includes Bluetooth® 2.0, which provides support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits and other Bluetooth peripherals. The included BlackBerry® Desktop Manager software comes with Roxio® Media Manager for BlackBerry, which includes new features that make it easier to organize multimedia content as well as manage music, videos and recorded Voice Notes between a computer and the smartphone. It also optimizes video files for smooth full-screen playback on the BlackBerry Bold smartphone's large display with support for full-screen and widescreen formats.

Roxio Photosuite 9 LE is included, allowing customers to easily enhance pictures and create photo albums on their computer. In addition, the new BlackBerry® Media Sync application allows customers to sync their iTunes® digital musical collections² with the handset. The BlackBerry Bold also boasts a new acoustic design for enhanced phone listening quality and clarity and numerous premium phone features, including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD).

AT&T Backed
Backing the BlackBerry Bold smartphone will be AT&T's 3G BroadbandConnect network, which currently is available in more than 320 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. and, by year-end, AT&T expects to offer the service in nearly 350 leading U.S. markets. In addition to 3G connectivity, the BlackBerry Bold is also designed to connect seamlessly with AT&T's nationwide³ EDGE network, which is available in more than 13,000 cities and towns and along some 40,000 miles of major highways.

For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit www.att.com.

[ctgazer]

cools.....its finally nice to be in canada and get something first ive had mine for about a month and a bit now..

[Blake]

Originally Posted by ctgazer

cools.....its finally nice to be in canada and get something first ive had mine for about a month and a bit now..

it's been depressing having to wait for it. it was supposed to come out in may. long overdue. hopefully the product will meet the hype.

[bolinp78]

Originally Posted by blakepilot

it's been depressing having to wait for it. it was supposed to come out in may. long overdue. hopefully the product will meet the hype.

I assume you are picking one up?

[Blake]

Originally Posted by bolinp78

I assume you are picking one up?

day 1

on another note, i went into the at&t store near my house and asked about preorders, they said they'll probably be accepting preorders by friday or monday.

[ZJP]

Finally....

[Blake]

Originally Posted by Tranzporter

Finally....

no shit! way too long overdue. i've been waiting since i first read about it back in march. back then, it was due out in may. here we are just knocking on 2009 and we're just getting it. although releasing it later is probably a better idea seeing as holiday season is right around the corner. they'll probably profit more not dropping at the same time as the iphone 3g. what a nice christmas present the new, sleek blackberry bold would be!

[Year's_End]

november 4th? eh, not gonna get it on day 1.

[ZJP]

Originally Posted by Bimmer Loyalist

november 4th? eh, not gonna get it on day 1.

+1

I'm gonna wait for a flock of them to sell on ebay and buy it significantly cheaper.

[MadDog]

Hefty price tag for AT&T's BlackBerry Bold (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc said on Wednesday it would sell the BlackBerry Bold from Research In Motion Ltd for $299, or 50 percent more than it charges for Apple Inc's iPhone.

AT&T, which had set a new bar for smartphones with a $200 iPhone, said it would start selling the high-speed version of Rim's popular mobile email devices from November 4, just ahead of the unofficial start of the U.S. holiday shopping season.

But with its relatively high price, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Chris King said the Bold with likely be more popular among executives than consumers.

"The BlackBerry is going to be almost entirely business focused. iPhone is still mainly attracting consumers," said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Chris King.

AT&T said it would be the first U.S. operator to support navigation services for customers traveling outside the country with the Bold, which also supports Wi-Fi, a short-range wireless network technology found in coffee shops.

The $299 price tag applies to customers who sign up for a two year contract with AT&T, the company said.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Andre Grenon)

[Joonsup]

I currently have the curve, and browsing sucks arse on it. On the iphone it looks the same as if you are on your home computer, but smaller size. Does that have to do with the coding, etc..? Will the new bold have the same web browsing capabilities as the iphone?

[Blake]

Originally Posted by MadDog

Hefty price tag for AT&T's BlackBerry Bold (Reuters)

as i always say...you gotta pay to play!

[G-Mach1]

Originally Posted by joonsup

I currently have the curve, and browsing sucks arse on it. On the iphone it looks the same as if you are on your home computer, but smaller size. Does that have to do with the coding, etc..? Will the new bold have the same web browsing capabilities as the iphone?

I have used previous versions of BB and browsing on Bold is much better compare to the earlier Black beeriries. However it is not as good as iPhone. ( I bought the 3G on day 1 and after no of issues witht hem I finally gave it back and got the Bold. Bold is way better than iPhone).
Bold - Professionals
iPhone - Teenagers

[Blake]

you silly canadians with your universal health care and blackberry bolds....

[G-Mach1]

Originally Posted by blakepilot

you silly canadians with your universal health care and blackberry bolds....

For the first time we got some thing....

[Zeeman]

the screen resolution on the bold is unreal. it's pretty hefty though

[Blake]

Originally Posted by Zeeman

the screen resolution on the bold is unreal. it's pretty hefty though

how quick is it moving through the screens fast? one of the things i hate about my curve is it's pretty slow moving through the different screens really fast.

[ctgazer]

Originally Posted by blakepilot

how quick is it moving through the screens fast? one of the things i hate about my curve is it's pretty slow moving through the different screens really fast.

3g does wonders but you gotta keep in mind that its a handheld device. i would say the screens between the iphone and bold are pretty similar crisp wise. you can zoom, run different apps, and all that on the bold except it is smaller than the iphone (screen). all in all, yes the bold is a better business device, and the iphone is a better "fun" device.

when textin or emailing, the bold blows the iphone out of the water. aint no competition.

[nd54]

I had no idea the Bold hasn't been released in the US yet. This almost makes up for just getting the iPhone, paying 10x more for data and plans, not getting HBO, etc...(this list could go on forever).

[Blake]

got my bold today from the at&t store and park lane and 75 in dallas. it's f%#king awesome!

[EOE90]

how much moola?

[Blake]

$299 with contract, $550 without. i had to pay the without price