Tiered data plans have been part of RIM’s long term strategy, and we safely assume the boys and girls in Waterloo are pretty happy at the news this morning. RIM let us know that:
These new pricing plans will translate to savings for BlackBerry customers due to the industry-leading efficiency of the BlackBerry platform. Thanks to RIM’s longstanding focus on wireless data efficiency and investment in related technologies and infrastructure, the BlackBerry platform is significantly more efficient than other mobile platforms and this leads to a major advantage for users with tiered pricing plans
Additionally, to put this in perspective, BlackBerry consumers use about 54 MB of (compressed/optimized) data per month on average (compared to data usage averages that are 3-5 times higher for other brands) according to Consumer Reports, “which suggests that the large majority of BlackBerry consumers will now qualify to use the $15/month data plan.”
Mr. Jim Balsillie chimed in with a quote as well:
“AT&T’s strategic pricing move is great news for BlackBerry smartphone customers,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “We envision a day when all mobile phones are smartphones and we believe AT&T’s new service plans, together with RIM’s leading portfolio of BlackBerry products and services, will help attract a much broader range of consumers.”
We were initially told that these new data plans didn’t affect BlackBerry plans yet, but it seems they do in fact cover every AT&T smartphone. We’ve reached out to RIM to find out more information about the Enterprise BlackBerry data feature.
UPDATE: One of our AT&T guys tells us the $45 AT&T Enterprise BlackBerry plan drops to $40/mo. So much for a 200MB Enterprise plan for $20/month…
