AT&T cuts BlackBerry Torch price in half; now $99.99

By on Nov 11, 2010 at 2:22 AM
mobile November 11, 2010

AT&T has slashed the price of its flagship BlackBerry smartphone in half. The BlackBerry Torch, which became available in August 2010, is RIM’s first smartphone to feature both a touchscreen and a physical QWERTY keypad. It was also the first BlackBerry to launch with RIM’s new OS, BlackBerry 6. It initially hit store shelves at $199.99 and after roughly three months, the Torch is now available for $99.99 with a 2-year contract. A price drop after this length of time is not necessarily an indication of poor sales, as several blogs have speculated, though many analysts agree that sales have been less than spectacular. At it’s new price point, which is below the magical $100 mark, AT&T clearly hopes that the BlackBerry Torch will finally spread its wings this holiday season.

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40 Comments

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  • drew dogg

    N so it begins… downward spiral.

    • Sighmonsez

      Idiot comments like this really makes me laugh. If you haven’t notice, Blackberry sales have gone up quarter over quarter and year over year. Likewise, RIM’s share of the smartphone market has gone up at the expense of companies like Nokia, Motorola, LG and Sony-Ericsson. Yes, iPhone is selling better and taking more market share but RIM isn’t losing market share, either. If RIM doesn’t sell one more hardware, the revenue generated from their subscriber base will sustain them for many, many years to come. With that said, I hardly doubt RIM will stand still with product development. All you have to do is look at Playbook with the new QNX based OS and project out.

      So, how is it that RIM is on a downward spiral?

      • ex-BB user

        Just for clarification on your 2nd sentence, I checked out the latest ComScore showing the two most recent share subscriber % and RIM dropped from 40.1% to 37.3% not increased. However, you could very well be talking about global marketshare (which I have not checked), but considering this is specifically ATT, I thought I’d throw out just some US numbers (as I’m sure ATT is primarily concerned about the US subscriber base).

      • Sbmobile

        That’s complete bullshit, especially when in an age of the Google search engine! Apple outsold RIM buy almost 6 million phones for the last quarter. RIM has lost investor confidence & are now rated as “negative” (sell). The Torch, both Storms & the Tour haven’t helped at all. Google it. RIM needs to go buy a different company with their $$, before Apple sinks their ship like the Titanic. The Playbook & QNX is their last shot in the dark! lol! RIM’s stern is already pointing in the air & the ship is sinking faster by the day.

      • Anonymous

        Dude your joking right? Rim went from having 40+% of the smartphone market share in 2007 to 26% today so how is that rising? To make matters worse according to Nielsen research 70% of BB users are planning to go to iOS or Android. That also explains why Rim shares have gone from $144 down to about $50+ and why Apple has gone from $70 to $320.

      • Rocker

        Research eh? How often has that research been proven accurate. People don’t get it that its a HUGE PIE, and only a quarter of it is full. All 3 big boys (Apple, Android(on like every manufacturer out there), and RIM) will eat this up. Windows7 has a shot, but its a long one. Of course IOS and Android are eating up lots of share but like said before, RIM is still growing subscribers and yes their share has dropped, but that % they still have is larger in actual customers than it was when their share was up around 50% of the s-phone share in NA… Investors have harped on RIM for ages…….

      • Adiliyo

        i think you’re talking about google, not rim :)

    • AC

      can you please extrapolate on what you mean by the “down spiral” since you such a genius on this topic? *sigh*

  • Mgl323

    $99 ain’t that bad at all for the holidays.

  • Adiliyo

    well, that is about all it’s worth anyways…

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CQWL2BHTLVQEB3M3LCTCZFV634 Dereck

      do u own one? im so sick of people judging phones that they have never used for themselves. The torch is a great phone and there gonna move alot of units at that price … stop reading bias blogs before u judge a product .. specs are nice on paper but seeing is believing

      • Anonymous

        Actually I did own one and it was my 6th Blackberry, I took it back and agree that $99 is all it’s worth.

      • Anonymous

        Elsewhere rest of the world it gets even shall we say..interesting…Here in Malaysia this thing are priced against iPhone 4 16Gb unlocked.As much as I rag on Apple regularly,that’s beyond absurd.

      • Sbmobile

        more like $10. Now that I think about it, it probably costs them less than that to produce it, so their mark-up is crazy!!

      • Wallyson

        Took mine back as well. That sorry menu system, the rediculously sensitive power button on the top, the plastic phone dial piece peeling off and it not coming with a decent screen unlock were the reasons. I went back to my Pre+.

      • Sbmobile

        U sound like 1 of the 1 millions that are angry they committed to a piece of crap hardware. Not to mention its operating system (OS), is dated back to ’07! Honestly, I don’t know why I’m torturing u, owning 1 of those pieces of crap is torture enough! lol

      • Adiliyo

        i’ve had a handful of blackberry’s they were very functional back in 2005, and while this might be the best blackberry, it’s like saying bear shit is the best animal shit. in the end it’s still a crap os that can’t do half the things a modern smartphone os needs to do.

        RIM needs to innovate, and innovate big time, and the playbook is not it.

  • zukidrvr

    “though many analysts agree that sales have been less than spectacular”

    AT&T’s second best selling device. What analysts?

    • Visual Mofo

      Prove it.

  • http://twitter.com/hawaiiinsomniac hawaiiinsomniac

    I would buy one… but I need a phone that plays Angry Birds o_O

    • Anonymous

      You can’t play Angry Birds on it; you can only Word Mole or play with the slide out key board (or, play with yourself). But, no “Annoyed Avians”.

  • LGR

    for blackberry and blackberry users the torch IS a great NEW phone.. the first BB to have a touchscreen and physical keyboard in the BB lineup.

  • http://twitter.com/playbooktabletz blackberryplaybook

    wow! att has just laughed BlackBerry Torch Red and white version and now cut down price, oh my Blackberry

  • Sean76

    At&t makes me sick! Their rules and pricing are so crazy..did everyone know that their early upgrade price went from $75 on top of the current price to $200 on top of the current price? Their service sucks, their pricing sucks, They Suck! Off to T-Mobile when they drop the 9789 next week….

    • Visual Mofo

      This was reported back in September. Where the fuck have you been?

  • Sean76

    LOL…meant 9780…

  • Matt P

    Or maybe the exclusive is about to end.

  • Anonymous

    So by Christmas, this might be $49.99 or “Free”? Blackberry is steadfastly remaining the leader in American unpopularity, just ahead of Windows Mobile/Professional/Phone (or, whatever they ultimately decide to call the Windows OS).

    Sad day America, sad day……..sad, sad day.

  • Dizzy

    I love the Torch!

  • http://rmbo47.myopenid.com/ rmbo47

    That didn’t take long! If they’re cutting the price in half, either it didn’t sell well or initial sales fell off quickly. Like off a cliff.

  • DroidRules

    If Blackberry isn’t careful they’re gonna beat Android to the bottom.

  • HectorV

    Blackberry needs some decent fart apps. to stay with the big boys.

    • Anonymous

      its already a big boy, thats why it has no toys

  • jfvincent@charter.net

    I’m waiting for the Apple exclusivity agreement to end here. I’ll be able to get a top of the line Android phone fo free when Android loses 99% of their U.S. sales. “Android, the almost Blackberry”.

  • Rob

    I love you.

  • Keymaker

    The question is, who in their right mind is going to sign a 2 year agreement on a piece of crap like that? Blackberries are good for developing and 3rd world countries but in the new world phones do more than emails now. iOS, Android and even WP7 have soo much to offer that you truly got to be a loyal BB user to stick around.

    • QNX Please

      Please explain what iOS, Android or WP7 has to offer over BlackBerry… Cause I can explain a lot of things my BlackBerry does that is not available on any of those phones.

      • http://twitter.com/VDubb722 Vic Webb

        Widgets, Angry Birds, viable web browsing, high quality cameras, HD video recording, video chat, Angry birds.

  • Brice

    To get it at that price it is REQUIRED to have a NEW 2 year ACTIVATION

  • Anonymous

    even at $50 they would hardly sell… shit, even free….

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