Actually, it's not entirely stupid. AT&T is out because they have the iPhone and there's no way that Apple doesn't raise a fuss if AT&T tries to get this phone. That leaves T-Mobile as the exclusive GSM carrier in the US and they simply don't have enough subscribers to entice RIM. So they just went with the largest CDMA carrier, which isn't as bad a move as it initially seems. The iPhone hasn't exactly been setting sales records outside of the US. That mostly has to do with using EDGE but maybe it also has to do with capacitive touch screens just not being quite as popular outside of the US. RIM could have released it unlocked but I don't think they've ever done that before; they've always launched a phone through a carrier.
As for the GSM side of the phone, there's no way that it has US bands if it's being sold exclusively through Verizon.
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Actually, it's not entirely stupid. AT&T is out because they have the iPhone and there's no way that Apple doesn't raise a fuss if AT&T tries to get this phone. That leaves T-Mobile as the exclusive GSM carrier in the US and they simply don't have enough subscribers to entice RIM. So they just went with the largest CDMA carrier, which isn't as bad a move as it initially seems. The iPhone hasn't exactly been setting sales records outside of the US. That mostly has to do with using EDGE but maybe it also has to do with capacitive touch screens just not being quite as popular outside of the US. RIM could have released it unlocked but I don't think they've ever done that before; they've always launched a phone through a carrier.
As for the GSM side of the phone, there's no way that it has US bands if it's being sold exclusively through Verizon.