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BlackBerry Tour mania strikes

by on01 July 2009


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Multiple carriers get ready for July launch


One thing is for sure, the hype surrounding the BlackBerry Tour with CDMA carriers in North America seems to be in full effect, with all of them jockeying for position to move the latest member of the BlackBerry family. Here is the latest that we know about the BlackBerry Tour launches from the carriers in North America.

Sources tell us that that Bell Mobility will release the Tour into Canadian hands starting on July 17th, and it will retail for a staggering $699. If you are willing to do a three-year deal, you will be able to pick one up for $249. We hear some whispers that a $199 deal might also be offered by Bell Mobility at some point, but it is unlikely for launch day. We hear that Bell Mobility stores have already received dummy demo units of the Tour for launch day.

Verizon, as we have already reported, will also be offering the Tour. Verizon’s official launch day for the Tour release is now July 12th. Verizon will offer the Tour in two configurations, with or without a camera, by request of many enterprise IT customers. Pricing is still the same as we told you about before for Verizon, with it going for $199 with the pre-order and a new two-year contract. Alltel is also getting the Tour and we expect the pricing to be similar to Verizon given the recent ownership of Alltel by Verizon. You can expect the Alltel pricing to be pretty much the same as Verizon from what we are hearing.

Sprint looks to be the last to launch the Tour with a date of July 20th that has been given to us by our sources. Still, our sources suggest that the date of July 20th isn’t firm yet, but they would like to have it available for order by then. Sprint has not been very forthcoming about the launch of the Tour yet, but we expect them to start talking more about it soon. When the Tour is released on Sprint, our moles say that it will also go for $199 with a two-year contract, but that price isn’t set in stone yet. Some rumblings from our moles suggest that if Sprint has limited inventory at launch, they might opt for a $249 price point with a two-year contract instead.

Telus in Canada will be offering the Tour, as well. Telus Premium Perks members received an Email last week indicating that the launch day would be July 15th. While we have poked and prodded our sources to try to get some info on the pricing, we have yet to hear exactly what the pricing for the Tour will look like on Telus. We assume that it will be competitive with Bell Mobility, and maybe a little cheaper with a three-year contract.

So if you are waiting for the Tour, we suggest that you might want to lock in your Tour with a pre-order, if possible. Early buzz is strong for this one with the CDMA carriers in North America, and we are already hearing that all the carriers being able to satisfy launch day demand could be an issue.

Last modified on 01 July 2009
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