RIM Only Sells 150,000 BlackBerry Torch 9800s First Weekend
With a huge release party, mysterious monoliths in AT&T stores and enough leaks to sink the Titanic, the BlackBerry Torch 9800 was dubbed as Research In Motion’s (RIM) real answer to the iPhone and Android OS-powered smartphones. However, according to both RBC Capital Markets and Stifel Nicolaus, RIM has only managed to sell about 150,000 Torches over the weekend. Remember Apple’s iPhone 4 launch? 1.7 million units sold in the first three days. What the heck is going on here?
Well first of all, we have to understand that many of RIM’s customers are companies. Companies are generally slow to adopt new technology. (How many offices around the country still run Microsoft XP Pro? Far more than Microsoft wants to admit.) Still though, this is crushing news for RIM and AT&T. Both companies have refused to comment on the situation.
Second, we should also realize that the iPhone 4 came out in multiple countries at once. The Torch hasn’t been so lucky. I think it needs to show up on a few more carriers, and quickly. Playing the AT&T exclusivity agreement game is a dangerous rope to walk.
iSupply has also pointed out that the new Torch costs approximately $183 to manufacturer–including parts and labor. Most of the parts in it have already appeared in earlier BlackBerry models, and its processor (same as the Bold 9700’s) is a bit slower than what most high-end smartphones are currently packing. What really is striking though, is that iSupply estimates that a new iPhone 4 only costs around $188 to build.
What’s going on here RIM? Slower processor, a screen with around half the resolution and your Torch costs $5 less to build than the new iPhone? I think you should have spent the extra $5 and given us a better screen. Oh well, you can always blame much of this on AT&T–after all, AT&T did tell RIM what it should put in the Torch.
What do you think? These numbers going to drastically change over the next few months or is the Torch 9800 going to have a launch reminiscent of a non-flagship Android OS smartphone? Let me know what you think about this.
Tags: BlackBerry Torch 9800, RIM, AT&T
I don’t think it’s quite fair to compare the launch of the Torch to the launch of the iPhone 4, especially when AT&T 4 offered its customers the chance to get out of their contracts early when they upgraded to iPhone 4. I’ll admit that when Verizon did the same thing, I almost dumped my Blackberry for a Droid X.
Also take into account the fact that many iPhone users upgraded. It’s hard to defend the 600,000 people who pre-ordered the iPhone on good faith, having never “gripped” the phone. People weren’t upgrading because they knew it was a great product or they needed it. It seems more like they wanted it and figured it would be good, because of their past experience.
You can’t fault them for that, but 1.7 million people buying the phone is more of a testament to the Apple marketing machine and people’s faith in their products than it is to the quality of the iPhone 4 or the network they’re on. Nor does the BlackBerry Torch not selling a million phones at launch mean that it’s a bad phone or that no one will buy it.
Hundreds of thousands pre-ordered the iPad without having used one, because it looked good. It’s good, but it’s the pre-ordering of a totally new product, that strikes me as the company selling the product well over quality, not to deny the quality of the iPad. At least with the iPhone 4, you know it’s an iOS device just like your old one, with some perks.
Bottom line: RIM still sells more phones, even if you think the OS is shitty, so it wasn’t the case that they needed to launch a new BlackBerry to dethrone the iPhone. While this was a big launch for RIM, it’s no more exciting on paper than the release of say the BlackBerry Tour. BlackBerry OS 6 is great, but RIM has been winning in smartphone sales with OS 4 and 5, which have an atrocious browser and basically no apps. People have continued to buy BlackBerries upgrading them to or buying the best one out at the time.
RIM has held a fairly consistent market share for a while. Obviously they will start to lose steam as Android picks up, but don’t think that 1.7 million iPhone 4s spell doom for the BlackBerry or that the failure of the Torch discredits the BlackBerry.
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