[mrogers]

Originally Posted by corey@12mile

Both the RazrBerry and Electron are both very real. The Electron will have a 300Mhz processor and 64Megs of RAM, possibly 128. The RazrBerry has been in the hands of the uppers at RIM who have told their employees to make sure the Electron gets to market before the RazrBerry.

Right now there are 6 Electrons in existence and the UI is being created as we speak. Even better is this... The current ARM processors in the Blackberry's run anywhere from 40 to 50Mhz - this draws 5 milliwatts of power. This new 300 Mhz processor, which is made by IBM, on draws 1.5 milliwatts of power. As well, the screen on the Electron will put the 7100 screen and the Treo650 screen to shame...

cd.

Oooooh, I want one so bad! Faster processor, better screen, lower power consumption, EDGE....do you happen to know the resolution of the screen? Is it getting higher? And if the RIM execs want this out to market fast, how long does that usually mean? Think we might see it by the fall?

[MobileRC]

holy geez...drool

[Mess]

I've been looking to upgrade my 7280 to a 7290, but now i'll just wait for the Electron.

[corey@12mile]

mrogers,

I don't know the resolution of the screen. The electron, 82XX something will be out to market Q4 this year with TMO, with Rogers coming most likely Q1 2006.

The reason the Electron has got the push on, is because the RIM execs apparently have had the Razrberry in their hands and were so impressed by it that the want to get some Electrons on the market before the Razrberry gets out.

Here's something else for people to keep in mind as well. RIM will not be producing software for handhelds with less then 32megs of RAM come Q1 2006. They will still support all handhelds though.

cd.

[mrogers]

Hmmm...TMo and Rogers...what about Cingular? I would hope they'd be getting it about the same time. Cingular is many things, but slow to get phones it usually is not. Especially with such a large subscriber base, I would think they'd want it out there as soon as any other carrier.

[corey@12mile]

How long did it take Cingular to get the 7100?

[mc187]

hi guys, just want to let everybody know that the production of electron will start this year in aug to sep. there is many samples made, ive played around with one and all i got to say is wowww.

cant wait to get my own.

[corey@12mile]

What's the wow part? and how did you get to play around with one? There are not many samples, in fact there are only 6 is existance right now. There is not a fully functional OS for the handheld yet. The prototype for the handheld OS only runs in full debugging mode at 100mhz currently, which makes it about the same speed as the current 7290.

The production of the electron will not start until a commitment is made from a carrier so your timing is a load of BS.

mc187, I think you are full of it.

[mrogers]

Originally Posted by corey@12mile

How long did it take Cingular to get the 7100?

Who was one of the first companies to have the 7290? Cingular.

How long did it take T-Mobile to get the 7290? Forever.

So I guess the answer is who the heck knows :D I guess it is just wishful thinking on my part, trying to find a reason for Cingular to get it first.

[Dawg]

Wow corey a little tough on the guy arent you? how do you get your information maybe he has the same inside information maybe he works for RIM you never know who is who on a forum.

Originally Posted by corey@12mile

What's the wow part? and how did you get to play around with one? There are not many samples, in fact there are only 6 is existance right now. There is not a fully functional OS for the handheld yet. The prototype for the handheld OS only runs in full debugging mode at 100mhz currently, which makes it about the same speed as the current 7290.

The production of the electron will not start until a commitment is made from a carrier so your timing is a load of BS.

mc187, I think you are full of it.

[beedo]

T-Mobile is the largest provider of BlackBerry in the world. Before the merger of AT&T/Cingular, T-Mobile sold the most BlackBerry devices in the US. RIM is going to give priority on new devices to T-Mobile over Cingular every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

[mrogers]

Then explain the 7290. Why it took T-Mobile months to get it after Cingular. In that case, your all-encompassing statement is wrong. Not trying to be argumentative just for the sake of it, but I am trying to say that there's no definable pattern here.

[corey@12mile]

Originally Posted by Dawg

Wow corey a little tough on the guy arent you? how do you get your information maybe he has the same inside information maybe he works for RIM you never know who is who on a forum.

Well sure... except for a simple fact. What this guy is saying is not true. If he does work for RIM he's not allowed to talk about it. Anyone who works for RIM will never initiate a conversation or straight up give out facts about new products. It's highly frowned upon.

The only way to get facts out of RIM is to ask specific questions to the people who know. There aren't that many people who really know about the Electron at RIM yet... There are even fewer people who have had it in their hand.

The only way this guy, with all 3 of his posts would have this in his hand is to work for RIM, in which case he would never have posted that here to begin with.

I am not being rough, but this guy is out and out lying about there being several versions of the electron and having one in his hand.

cd.

[udontknowjack]

OK, here is the carrier scoop.
The 7290 and 7100 were release at the same time. Cingular got exclusivity on the 7290 for 90 days while T-Mobile got exclusivity on the 7100 for 90 days. They are the two biggest carriers for RIM so that is why they got those first. Once the 90 days was up then they relesed their own versions of the others. T-Mobile got the 7100s over Cingular because they commited to like 250,000 devices or some unbelievable number and then sold them all in no time.

That is the Rhyme or reason. It is always about Money and who pays the most to RIM for what.

[Dawg]

Corey I didnt say he did work for RIM I said maybe he did, But I asked where you got your information that maybe you shared same contacts and you didnt elaborate either.

[corey@12mile]

Originally Posted by Dawg

Corey I didnt say he did work for RIM I said maybe he did, But I asked where you got your information that maybe you shared same contacts and you didnt elaborate either.

I know exactly what you said. I also know the corporate environment at RIM very well. RIM employees do not give out information like you or I would, which is how I know this guy isn't a RIM employee. The electron has never left the RIM buildings except in transport from Waterloo to Mississauga.

I get my information from a number of people I know who work at RIM, and from a number of people I know at Rogers. Some of the Rogers people volunteer information, but nobody at RIM has ever volunteered 'breaking news' information.

The electron is shrouded in secrecy right now, for obvious reasons.

cd.

[Dawg]

LOL Corey Make up your mind do the People at RIM give out information or dont they

Quote: If he does work for RIM he's not allowed to talk about it

Quote: I get my information from a number of people I know who work at RIM

and btw I really dont care I was just busting your balls a bit lol

[corey@12mile]

I absolutely agree, but what I said, and I though was quite clear, was that people at RIM will never initiate a conversation and start giving out facts.

To just say...

hi guys, just want to let everybody know that the production of electron will start this year in aug to sep. there is many samples made, ive played around with one and all i got to say is wowww.

is not something a RIM employee would do. The way I found out about this was...

Me> Is this electron thing real?
Friend> Yes
Me> Can I have one?
Friend> No
Me> Much faster than current blackberries?
Friend> Yes
Me> How much faster?
Friend> 300mhz
Me> ARM Processor?
Friend> No
Me> Who makes processor?
Friend> IBM
Me> How's the screen?
Friend> Amazing, will put treo's to shame
Me> Can I see one?
Friend> Look X cubicles down.

This is pretty much the way it goes... You have to know someone real well, you have to have their trust, and you have to ask the right questions. The little blurb is pretty much how it went to begin with. I ended up getting a few more questions answered afterwards because I know which questions to ask.

cd.

[nskgti]

I hate to say it, but you have no clue what you are talking about... There was never plans for the Electron to have UMTS. There is no reason to. Yes, the electron will have EDGE. The HSDPA rollout is not being delayed till late 2006 early 2007. They are in the process of testing/rolling out in a number of cities right now... They will be close to their 15-20 markets. They may not have all 20, but they will be close. There is plenty of spectrum in most markets to roll out HSDPA.

There will eventually be an HSDPA blackberry, but it won't be the next release. Upon talking with some people at RIM, they say the EDGE blackberry is as fast as an EV-DO enabled blackberry due to processor limitations. Addtionally blackberries usually send very small packets (ie 2kb-6kb). Sure the whole dial up networking thing would be nice, but it isn't RIM's highest priority.

Originally Posted by iRoninTMO

Well I'm not high enough in the company to tell you why we would show this listed in our Q3/Q4 handset lineup, but I've got a few guesses.
1.) UMTS
2.) HSDPA
We have neither, and will not have the spectrum for either until at least late 2006, early 2007. Asuming we have the spectrum then, a network rollout for something like that will take the company a year/2 years to do. I'm not basing this on other companies 3G rollout, but simply the difficulty T-Mobile's having with rolling out EDGE. It's been on the menu for a while, and compared to a UMTS conversion, it's relatively easy. Given a lackluster purchases at Auction 58, I don't see the spectrum there this year, given the sustained growth rates.

I think EDGE is going to be something that we hang our hats on for a while anyways. For the most part, EDGE will provide data throughput rates to satisfy most anyways. Remember bandwidth consumption is only part of your network speed, latency also figures into it as well. The EDGE network is capable of sending relatively large packets, but because it's based on a timed syncronicity between the handset and the tower, latency can't be fixed. You need a code syncroncized (preferabely a wideband code division multiple access... they hired me cuz I knew what all the acronyms meant ;) )

Anyhoo, got off on a rant there, EDGE is big for T-Mobile, and its customer base, because frankly 80% of the people will be fine with EDGE speeds, and that's good cuz they're probably going to be stuck with it for a long time. An EDGE Blackberry that comes out on a brand new EDGE network will help drive EDGE adoption as well as increased data revenue and at least curb the churn to other carriers for higher speed options. T-Mobile missed the boat on EDGE, and has got to get devices out NOW to remain competitive.

[Mark Rejhon]

Me> How much faster?
Friend> 300mhz
Me> ARM Processor?
Friend> No
Me> Who makes processor?
Friend> IBM
Me> How's the screen?
Friend> Amazing, will put treo's to shame

That's some quite exclusive information you're posting. I hope RIM isn't putting out a SWAT team at your house

Very exciting information indeed. The 7250 has a 250Mhz ARM9 type CPU, but I do know that different model CPU's have very different performance behaviour (one 200 Mhz CPU can be much faster than another 300 Mhz CPU). Since a fair part of BlackBerry is written in Java anyway (with only the low level bits in a lower level language), the CPU differences doesn't really matter to BlackBerry software.

It does sound like they are finally switching to a different screen resolution width than 240. Maybe 480x360 perhaps?

Can't wait to see one for the first time this year. (I know if I have seen one, I'd definitely have to keep my mouth sealed )