Is Samsung getting worried about a BlackBerry revival?
The South Korean electronics giant has released an ad mocking BlackBerry users as being behind the times.
The ad comes a week ahead of RIM’s unveiling of the BlackBerry 10 operating system and smartphones.
The 90-second spot shows office staff who’ve just been notified they can use any smartphone they want at work.
“So are you finally going to retire that thing?” asks an employee who’s working on on a Samsung Galaxy S3.
“That’s cute,” replies a co-worker evidently working off a BlackBerry. “You’re not even working. You’re watching a basketball game.”
“Actually I’m closing deals with clients AND watching the game. Mordern business, my friend,” the Samsung fan responds.
“This is the future of business,” the BlackBerry fan says, holding up his phone.
“What, your jacket?” the Samsung user replies.
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The ad goes on to show BlackBerry users grappling with multiple phones while Samsung users carry out all their tasks on one device.
It doesn’t mention RIM or the BlackBerry by name, but, as TechCrunch points out, it clearly takes aim at RIM’s business customers, in an effort to woo more of them over to the Galaxy line of phones.
Research In Motion will be officially unveiling its BB10 generation of phones at an event on Jan. 30, and is expected to unveil two models of full-screen BlackBerry Z10 phones (as tech bloggers have dubbed them) at that time. The QWERTY keyboard model — which the rumour mill says will be called the BlackBerry X10 — is expected to come out later in the year (though some reports say it will be released at the same time as the others).
News about pricing for BlackBerry phones is beginning to leak in the press. A purported inventory sheet from Best Buy Canada, obtained several weeks ago by the BGR blog, cited the retail price for a phone at $799. No prices were given for a phone bought under a wireless contract.
But BGR reported this week that the U.S. price for the phone on a two-year cellphone contract will be less than the standard $199 that “flagship” phones typically sell for.
“So expect something at $149 or below with two year agreement,” the blog reported.
Canadian customers can expect to pay somewhat more, though no official prices have been released so far.
The Rogers-owned wireless brand Fido has become the latest Canadian carrier to announce it is taking pre-orders on the new generation of BlackBerry phones, MobileSyrup reports.
Best Buy, Future Shop and Walmart Canada are all taking pre-orders for the phone, according to the CrackBerry blog. Rogers is already taking orders for the phones online, and all the major Canadian wireless carriers are expected to offer the BB10 line of phones.
No actual release date for sales has been set.