The Bold 9900 is set to be the next big release from BlackBerry. Combining a touchscreen and classic BlackBerry keyboard with the much improved and polished BlackBerry OS7, it was officially announced in May to much interest in the smartphone world. As yet, though, details on when exactly we can expect to see the Bold 9900 on British shores and for how much have been thin at best, so we decided to do a little digging and asking around. Here’s our report on what we’ve found…
On Contract
Most of the major networks expect to be offering the BlackBerry Bold 9900 on contract when it’s released. A representative of Orange told us that they were originally expecting a July or August launch, but that this had been delayed and that the handset was “not on their launch activity sheet yet”. Their “Everything Everywhere” partners T-Mobile, though, told us that they were expecting a September launch for the handset, so if this turns out to be true we’d expect Orange to get it at around the same time. Three UK are also expecting to have the Bold 9900 available in September, and have listed it on their “Coming Soon” pages with this date.
The pattern broke up, though, when we spoke to Vodafone. Far from the tentative September release dates that other networks were quoting, a representative of Vodafone told us in no uncertain terms “we will launch this phone by next month”. Now, it may be that Vodafone are being overoptimistic and will eventually succumb to whatever delay pushed release dates back on the other networks, but it’s also possible that Vodafone have managed to secure an early release on their network – much like they did with the HTC Sensation. We’re certainly hoping for the latter!
Moving on, both the Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U are expecting to have the BlackBerry Bold 9900 available on contract, but neither could be pinned down on a release date. E2Save on the other hand were slightly more specific and a representative said “We are told 1st September, but this could change.”
SIM Free
A number of online retailers are expecting to have the Bold 9900 available SIM free. Perhaps most significantly, Amazon have a listing for the phone which states both expected price and release date. They’re expecting the Bold 9900 to be released on the 15th of September and to cost £549.99, SIM free. Clove have also listed the handset and though they’ve yet to confirm a price, they do state that they expect it to be available from the end of Q3 which ties in nicely with Amazon’s September date.
No other retailers are currently quoting an expected date for the Bold 9900 but we did find a couple more estimated prices, courtesy of MobileFun and TheOrder.co.uk. MobileFun have the BlackBerry Bold 9900 up for £514.95, while TheOrder are expecting to charge £499.99 for it.
The Bottom Line
So, to summarise, it seems like the Bold 9900 will launch across most networks and retailers in September and cost around £500 SIM free, though there’s still a chance that Vodafone will be bringing it over a bit early and we’ll get to see it as soon as next month.
We’ll keep on the lookout for more information, so if you want the latest updates be sure to follow us on Twitter @ BestMobileCtrct or Like our Facebook page!
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