Correct. It's been 3.5 years since T-Mobile has picked up a launch device for a business BlackBerry. This dates back to the launch of the BlackBerry 7290, the second quad-band GSM device released by RIM and launched by Cingular in September 2004. The first quad-band GSM device was the BlackBerry 7100t, which was also the first consumer device released by RIM and marked the split of where T-Mobile marked their turf for BlackBerry devices going forward. Prior to the BlackBerry 7100t, there were very few devices that were shared on both T-Mobile and Cingular or AT&T Wireless due to the frequencies in the dual- and tri-band GSM devices. T-Mobile launched the first color device, the BlackBerry 7230, and two days later, AT&T launched the BlackBerry 7210. A couple months later, Cingular launched the BlackBerry 7280. In fact, the last time the two companies had the opportunity to share a pre-quad-band launch device was the BlackBerry 5810, in which both companies, then under the names AT&T Wireless and VoiceStream, delivered the revolutionary device to market in the same general time frame. Back then, the demand for a BlackBerry was little to none (most of us had not even heard of a BlackBerry by that point). RIM was still selling their benefits to carriers and the term 'exclusive' was nowhere in their vocabulary.

But yes, this device is set to be the successor to the 8700 and 8800 device families. Given that AT&T actually has the largest GSM-derived 3G market share and a lot more customers and likely a lot more demand for a 3G device, the chances of them not getting it first are slim to none. It's not always money that's the sure-shot for winning the exclusive around a major launch device, but rather where it makes more sense to ensure the success of the device and which carrier will guarantee the most sales. In these scenarios, T-Mobile is a definitive runner-up.