Is there any word on Sprint getting the Curve? Even a rumor will keep me going for a while.

Haven't heard anything. I'm sure there will be one, but who knows when. Get the 8830 to hold you over, its pretty good.

I'm right there with you. I'm holding off until the 8300 for sprint. I hate the 8800's keyboard. I like that the key's are seperated on the 8300 and not pushed together.

im waiting for it on verizon

The 8830 is too much like the 8703 except for tracball, memory card slot and voice dialing. I'll wait for the 8300. I think the styling is just great. The camera also is a nice touch. I think all cell phone companies should offer all Blackberrys that exist. This way people wouldn't have to switch companies or watch their friend get a Blackberry that they want. I'm rambling. I need to stay off the coffee. <sigh>

That's not even possible since there are different network technologies at work.

Actually it is possible with slightly different versions. Several companies have the 8830 and the 8700. I'm sure they could put out a cdma version of the 8300 if they wanted to. Just like the iphone. It doesn't have to be just for ATT customers. It's all politics and business. A lot of a** kissing and then marketing decisions are made. The hell with the customers that make all this possible.

In a way you're right. Unfortunately, it is not the telco's calling all the shots here. The chipsets for CDMA are all manufactured by Qualcomm who has a veritable monopoly on the technology (which is primarily the reason why most of the world sticks with GSM/EDGE, even when EVDO is significantly faster).

With the latest BB releases we are seeing a faster move to CDMA carriers. I suspect that the pressure being put on Qualcomm is responsible but, in the end, we are getting more and more choices faster. If the 83xx series drops on a CDMA carrier before the end of the year it really a sign that things have changed. We used to have to wait 12-18 months.

There are actually NO companies offering both the 8830 and 8700.

You're neglecting two very key things here
1) Development times: Do you think that developing mobile devices is easy and quick? It's not! As far as a development process is concerned a CDMA device and a GSM device are two completely separate products. It's not simply a matter of "hey, lets pop the CDMA radio in here." Both software and hardware have to be specifically designed for the device and this takes a lot of time. Even after that's done, you have to go through a very lengthy testing process, again completely separate from other products.

2) Market: The vast majority of the world is NOT using CDMA. So if I'm in a business to make money, am I going to invest an equal amount of my time and resources into a vastly smaller market segment? That wouldn't make very much sense.


Your iPhone analogy is also completely off base. Yes, you're right it doesn't just have to be from AT&T, but it does have to be from GSM carriers because that's the technology it's built for. Could it be made for CDMA? Sure! But again, the above two reasons dictate that this is not necessarily the best route to pursue.

Before you go criticizing companies for why things aren't going in your favour, consider that there are other forces at work in the marketplace other than what you want.

First of all I never said things weren't going in my favor. I'm perfectly happy with the BB I have right now. I would just like more choices. It's not my concern how easy or hard it is to develope mobile devices. That's their business. I'm part of the customer base that makes their business possible. By the way when I said 8700 I meant the 8703 and yes, there is a company that has both the 8703 and the 8830. Sprint does.

Walt,

In Canada, Bell Mobility also has BB 8703e and BB 8830.

Rumour has it that BELL will be getting BB 8330 in Q4 in time for Christmas. Here's hoping.

CB

As do Telus and Verizon for that matter.
Seriously if you think CDMA is what makes RIM's business possible you're nuts!
As for dev times, if you're going to complain about this without accepting the perfectly reasonable explanation for the length of time it takes for device turn around then you come of just looking like you're whining cause you're not getting what you want. I suggest you just suck it up or switch to a GSM carrier (I guarantee you'll always be able to get a new device then!).

Ya, but the point remains that it is not RIM who is responsible for not providing you choices. They can't make the devices without CDMA chips from Qualcom. And, I would rather not wait for them to release our GSM (which most of the world uses) phones just because the ones with a CDMA (which nobody uses except for a select few carriers) are taking time.

RIM needs to provide devices for most of the world, not wait to produce devices just so people who loved being ripped off by Verizon will get their happy time BB jollies.

It would have been made for CDMA if Verizon had signed on with it. They didn't want it, so Apple approached AT&T. GSM world politics had nothing to do with it.

At the time the contract would have been negotiated there was actually a great deal of speculation about Verizon switching to a GSM based network.

As nuopus mentioned (although this is not a bottleneck for RIM) Qualcomm does maintain a great deal of control over their chips for CDMA devices. Apple has a very strong vertical integration of their supply chain (the reason why Verizon backed out in the first place) and I can't possibly see them changing this model to suit their need for Qualcomm's chips. Besides, limiting it the North American market would have been a complete departure from Apple's business model.

I disagree, but that's my opinion.

I would love for Sprint to get curve, but looking all over the net, I see no rumors about it upcoming anytime soon.