Why is it a turkey?
Research In Motion and later AT&T Mobility might have been reading Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" when they devised the launch of the BlackBerry Bold.
It was first announced in May that AT&T customers would get their hands on the device [1] in July for $300. Then, at the end of June, it was announced that the July launch would be scrapped and pushed back to August [2] as RIM looked to stabilize the device for AT&T's HSPA network. August came and went, as did September. On Oct. 1, the blog Boy Genius Report said that because of problems with the OS [3] that were being fixed by RIM, the launch would be delayed even further. Later that week, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said that the phone was delayed because the company wanted to make sure it works properly on AT&T's HSPA network [4].
On Oct. 22, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega let it slip that the phone would be available on Nov. 4 for $299.99 [5] with a two-year service contract and after a mail-in rebate. And indeed, the phone launched on that day [6], months after users thought they would get their hands on it.



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Links:
[1] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-customers-will-get-blackberry-bold-first/2008-05-19
[2] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/blackberry-bold-launch-delayed-til-august/2008-06-25
[3] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/blackberry-bold-delayed-further/2008-10-01
[4] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/rim-co-ceo-t-still-testing-blackberry-bold/2008-10-06
[5] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/rim-roundup-bold-out-nov-4-storm-reportedly-nov-16/2008-10-22
[6] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/blackberry-bold-arrives-t-stores/2008-11-04
[7] http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/samsung-instinct-ad-campaign
[8] http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/theyre-cooked-wireless-turkeys-2008
[9] http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/iphone-3g-glitches