Research In Motion, as the name implies, is always on the move. In today’s breaking BlackBerry news, Alltel Wireless will begin selling a CDMA flavor of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 for a recession-proof $79.99 (after $70 MIR) come May.
However, this reasonable price is not sans strings.
According to Alltel’s press release:
This discounted price is available to new and existing eligible customers who sign-up for a two-year service agreement on a qualifying Smart Choice Pack. Smart Choice Packs start as low as $69.99 per month and include unlimited data, email and Web access.
Anyways, the BB Pearl Flip, as we all know by know, is RIM’s first clamshell design smartphone. To refresh everyone’s memory, it includes a 240×320 (internal, duh) display, a “large” SureType® QWERTY keyboard, trackball navigation, built-in GPS, a 2 MP camera w/ video (requires a MicroSD card), along with “full HTML” browsing, a media player that can sync music from iTunes® or Windows Media Player (aka BlackBerry Media Sync), an expandable memory card slot (microSD/SDHC up to 16GB), and stereo Bluetooth® support.
The $70 monthly charge kills it for me (and that doesn’t include actual phone call service!).
$70 per month kills it for you? Have you not seen what you have to pay with other cariers in order to have a Smartphone? Alltel’s Smart Choice Plans by far are the best out of any carrier. You get more features and minutes for less. Besides you get the National footprint. I recommend you checking out some of the other carriers prices and then make a more accurate decision.