Look who registerd a new domain name on Oct 1st. Is RIM getting ready to release the big news. Currently the url blackberry8800.com redirects to blackberry.com.

Domain Name: BLACKBERRY8800.COM
Registrar: SCHLUND+PARTNER AG
Whois Server: whois.schlund.info
Name Server: NS51.1AND1.COM
Name Server: NS52.1AND1.COM
Status: ok
Updated Date: 01-oct-2006
Creation Date: 01-oct-2006
Expiration Date: 01-oct-2007

:-0

nice spot

Heck yeah that was a nice spot..kudos. Thanks for the info.

Blackberry 8800

WHEN!!!

unless something has happened, they've always used register.com for domain registrations. would seem kind of strange to go to someone like 1and1.com, where i've heard/personally experienced domain registration to be a perfect hell.

When you direct your browser to "blackberry8800.com" it redirects to the discoverblackberry.com site...so I guess the URL is owned by RIM...

Not necessarily. Anyone can do a redirect. Anyone can make a website with frames which pulls the content from another website and never changes the address (which is what's being done here). Or anyone can make an index page with the same content that's on another page. If you visited my website which had the content of CNN's homepage, would that mean that CNN owned my webpage as well?

The IP address it resolves to is 82.165.198.195, which is owned by a shared hosting company in Germany. Just doesn't seem to me like it's RIM, but...

My guess is it is a squatter that will want to get money for the domain when the time comes. Although that isn't legal, it's common.

You are probably correct...but it's still kind of an oversight for RIM not to have registered this domain anyway. I would think that they would snap up all of the obvious URL's for upcoming devices.

As for this being a German hosting company...well, remember, the first leaked images of this device did come from Muellerlinger, the dude from Germany...and remember, the pics even were of the German version of the device with their keyboard layout...so if this is indeed the real thing, perhaps RIM is ramping up in Europe first and has a European marketing company handling their site for this device...

I agree, but perhaps RIM was not planning a big fanfare launch like they did with the 8100, and thus felt no need to buy that domain.

Either way, it's curious.

This is happening more and more in the UK, the courts are forcing the "squatter" to hand the name over more times than not.

Squatting is heavily frowned upon here in the States.

It's only the registrant that is German, and that company is part of the 1+1 group. That's how the DNS record appears when you pick 1+1 as your registrar. The location of the server is in the US (go to DNS Stuff: DNS tools, DNS hosting tests, WHOIS, traceroute, ping, and other network and domain name tools. and check it out).

I don't believe it's squatting at all. Register.com is STILL charging $35/yr for a domain name! That's just ridiculous - even for a decent-sized company like RIM that has cash to spend. Seems like the right decision to me to go with a cheaper provider and just park the domain. I'll bet that's what they did and they chose 1+1.

Personally I'm a GoDaddy man myself.

I don't think Blackberry would use blackberry8800.com as their domain name for the 8800 device anyways. When the Pearl came out, it wasn't marketed as the 8100- it was marketed as the Pearl. The Indigo and Crimson will probably fall in line with this tactic. Possibly blackberryindigo.com and blackberrycrimson.com would align more with their marketing techniques for these devices. Just my two cents.

Guess we'll see. You're basing your assumption on one data point when historically RIM has always referred to their devices by model number. My guess would be that the Pearl was marketed with a name instead of a model number because it is a more consumer-oriented device... I wouldn't be surprised to see the 8800 marketed by it's model number since it's part of their "business" line.

Whether RIM actually uses the URL of blackberry8800.com as their main marketing site for that device is besides the point...the point is that they should want to buy it anyway to prevent someone else from using it. Many companies buy up all sorts of URLs that have any connection with their products, whether they intend to use those URLs or not.

Also, interestingly enough...blackberryindigo.com and blackberrycrimson.com are still available domain names...so I'm guessing that RIM will not be using these URLs...

With the different flavors of the 8800 series that are going to be released, I can see how RIM might want one unified website to showcase all of these, like blackberry8800.com...

very doubtful that they'll market the handhelds as their codenames. it hasn't happened before, nor will it now. the 8100 was codenamed Magenta prior to the release name of Pearl. same goes for the Charm (7100), Electron (8700), etc. the 8800 already has 3 different codenames (throw in Gamma Ray as well), so...

Remember Crimson and Indigo are code names, the Pearls code name was Magenta so odds are its gonna have another completely different name (or two)

Anyone been to blackberry8800.com recently?

Blackberry 8800

If you try blackberry8800.com now, you get a "Welcome to JBoss" screen. I'm not familiar with JBoss but it looks like some sort of portal software. Anyone know if this is what RIM runs on their main blackberry.com page?

Maybe we're close to seeing some actual content on the new site!

JBOSS is an open source java application server owned by Red Hat

labs.jboss.com

Just an FYI -

Registrant:
Research In Motion Limited
Domain Administrator
295 Philip Street
Waterloo, ON N2L3L3
CA
Email:

Registrar Name....: REGISTER.COM, INC.
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage:

Domain Name: blackberry8800.com

Created on..............: Tue, Dec 05, 2006
Expires on..............: Wed, Oct 01, 2008
Record last updated on..: Thu, Jan 04, 2007

Administrative,Technical Contact:
Research In Motion Limited
Domain Administrator
295 Philip Street
Waterloo, ON N2L3L3
CA
Phone: +1.5198887465
Email:

DNS Servers:

dns32.register.com
dns31.register.com