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AT&T to limit BlackBerry 8820's GPS?!

by Kevin Michaluk on 16 Aug 2007 12:26 PM
5
 

AT&T - Angel or Demon?

Big thanks to our friends at BBcool for breaking this shocking piece of news...

An inside source at AT&T has brought word that the US carrier has been successful in their attempt to lock down the GPS functionality in their upcoming BlackBerry 8820. The only piece of 3rd party software that will be given the privilege to function is Telenav.

The reason AT&T chose to do this? Apparently AT&T doesn't want to launch a device that would be superior to the iPhone. Think about it - with Wi-Fi, GPS, BlackBerry's killer push email and subsidized price, unless you want an iPhone for the sake of having an iPhone the 8820 makes for the more appealing choice.

Rumor also has it RIM was/is ticked off over AT&T's decision.  Can you blame them?!

[ Source ] 

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5 Comments

Posted by Fbrn Thursday, Aug 16, 2007 1640 days ago

RIM needs to focus on someone else. I know Verizon is even worse to deal with because I have them but if ATT treats you so bad and don't push your product then don't spend the time catering to them. Its really that simply!

 
 
Posted by Bla1ze Thursday, Aug 16, 2007 1640 days ago

AT&T has the most customers, RIM is a buisness that likes to make money, you take the services to where the people ie..money is...no matter what is said..look at all the upcoming devices, all the new ones anyways, for the most part have been announced and scheduled for AT&T first...RIM and AT&T have a long standing relationship that will not be broken over the features of one device..end of the day..$$ talks..sad but true fact.

 
 
Posted by nuopus Thursday, Aug 16, 2007 1640 days ago

Rumor has it that the AT&T Tilt (or HTC Kaiser) is coming out on the 3rd of September. It is a Windows Mobile 6 phone with a 400mhz processor, wifi, bluetooth, AND GPS. And the GPS isn't going to be locked down. If the reason is REALLY that they don't want to outdo the iPhone, then what about Tilt? It kills iPhone in every way ... and they are close to releasing that.

 
 
Posted by lamont Friday, Aug 17, 2007 1639 days ago

I had a BB 8800 from AT&T recently (on their 30 day trial period) and found out that AT&T doesn't have Blackberry maps. You must use their telenav service for $10.00 a month. Yet another example of the non customer service from AT&T. Also, I found that AT&T Blackberry service is 2x the cost of T-Mobile's ($40.00 per mo vs $20.00 per mo.). Their weak excuse is that they have 3G service. Rim should pull the 8820 from AT&T and have T-Mobile offer instead.

Just my $.02.

Geoff Greer

 
 
Posted by Karlos Wednesday, Oct 10, 2007 1585 days ago

In order to use the GPS in the 8820, you *have* to buy the TeleNav service ($5.99 or $9.99/month. Once you do, you can use Google Maps or any GPS software (except BBMaps, unless you hack the phone).