BlackBerry Bold Carries Hefty Price At Best Buy
The long-awaited and oft-delayed BlackBerry Bold is now for sale online through Best Buy with a price tag of $659.99, although the item description indicates the Bold is on backorder and should be available in a couple of weeks.
The Bold will mark the first 3G BlackBerry to hit the market. The smartphone is expected to be available nationwide in AT&T stores on Nov. 4. BlackBerry has said the device will start at just less than $300 with a two-year service contract through AT&T, which has exclusive carrier rights to the smartphone for the immediate future.
Best Buy's $660 Bold comes unsubsidized and contract free. While the Best Buy unsubsidized price is steep, it's still cheaper than buying one on eBay, where an AT&T-branded BlackBerry Bold recently sold for more than $1,000.
The BlackBerry Bold has become one of the most coveted devices in BlackBerry's 10-year history. Along with high-speed 3G connectivity, the handset offers Wi-Fi and GPS and a host of other features and functions, including a 2-megapixel camera, video recording and the ability to download and edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents. In addition, the Bold offers corporate access to mobile e-mail, messaging and calendaring—which has made the BlackBerry the gold standard for mobile business users. Myriad multimedia applications have helped propel BlackBerry into consumer circles as well.
The Bold, which was announced May, was originally expected to hit stores over the summer but suffered delays early on based on software, battery and overheating issues. Later, the Bold was delayed again in the U.S. as RIM and AT&T resumed testing on the Bold to ensure the device would operate properly on AT&T's 3G network to avoid the issues that surrounded the first wave of Apple's iPhone 3G when it was released in July. The continuing delays prompted speculation over the Bold's actual release date.
While the Bold was delayed, RIM unveiled a string of other devices, including the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 for T-Mobile and the BlackBerry Storm for Verizon Wireless, its first-ever touch-screen device, which pits the BlackBerry head to head with other touch-screen titans like the just-released T-Mobile G1 and the Apple iPhone 3G. Some saw the new devices as a slick diversion to appease users while they awaited the Bold's release.