Dudes, I with you on the whole 3G thing, but don't miss the hugeness of this phone. A NEW BlackBerry for under $100. Not an AT&T refurb; not last years model (although the features are a bit "last year"); but a new BlackBerry for the masses. While I wait patiently for my T-Mo 3G BlackBerry, T-Mobile should be raking in some serious cash selling cheap BlackBerries and affordable data plans to kids and families who don't need and can't afford all the services 3G enables.

Now I can only hope they reinvest some of that cash into wider 3G coverage.

Accelerometers will remain a phone feature since the technology is young and will improve phone after phone after phone. SIMs are so mass produced that it would be unmanageable for a carrier to swap out SIMs as the accelerometers improve. The answer to Oberthur's success is getting the carrier's, en masse, to recognize and accept some GSM wide service that the card enables. We are talking something on the scale of SMS (FTW), or SIM Services (FAIL), or SIM based WAP (FAIL), or SIM phonebooks (antique). As you can see, it will have to be some monster application for hundreds of carriers from hundreds of countries to get behind before an motion detecting SIM gets any traction in the marketplace.

So, what should go on a SIM? NFC, capacity for secure payment data, certificate stores, biometric data (maybe). Another direction for SIM cards would be to go contactless and then carry the SIM seperate form the phone so a stolen phone dies when out of range of the SIM. Then we could power up our phone of the day without having to swap SIMs every morning. Make "fashion phones" easy to use, and you facilitate selling more phones to a single customer.

That's my 6 figures and 20 years on SmartCard experience worth.

Who writes your headlines? The headline says "RIM opens the BlackBerry Application storefront"? The body of the article says "the Storefront, which is scheduled to go live in March."

"Opens" implies an action that has already taken place. March has not taken place yet.

Most of the time I really appreciate your coverage, but sometimes you come off as the Weekly World News of technology.

If this new UI goes deeper than the home screen (a lot deeper), Microsoft may save Windows Mobile from extinction. If the UI does permiate through the entire OS and maintains all the great WinMo functionality, they may even begin to reclaim some market share.

I know these are "concepts", but those are what lead to future realities. Go Microsoft!

VZW and RIM have opened the GPS capabilities for BlackBerry Maps. It isn't as good as Google Maps, but the ability to pinpoint a location without spending a penney makes BlackBerry Maps a lot more appealing now.

This sounds like a pre-emptive PR move. A PR move that will fail if you see through it.

At the end of 2009, when they sell fewer phones AND fewer models (trying to cover the PR symantics) they will proudly stand before the masses and say "We meant to do that."

If they were the hardware manufacturer, reducing production lines and increasing product focus makes sense. Microsoft is not the manufacturer, so they won't see production savings. This move may irritate manufacturers enough to reduce models AND total sales which should result in a reduction in sales and revenue for Microsoft. Yea, that's wise!

No phone is released by a carrier without going through the carrier's approval process. While the Bold may be as bad as rumors say, the issues should have been discovered before it was offered up for sale to customers. If the approval process was followed, the issues should be no surprise to the carrier. In this case, shame on the carrier for releasing an inferior product. If the approval process wasn't followed, then the same shame on the carrier for not protecting the interests of its customers and its investors.

Erik, where is the cut and paste you promised us last week?

It doesn't exist until we see it. Thus, it still doesn't exist.

PN:

1) No one is licenced at 2100 in the U.S. This just means that both T-Mo 3G and iPhone will work in 2100 licenced areas (read: Europe and the rest of the 3G world).

2) Even if you put a T-Mo SIM in a 1900 3G device, the T-Mo account will not roam on AT&T 3G. At least not anytime soon.

Sorry!

Erik, until it is in our hands, it doesn't exist. I'm sure you would pay everyone else the same courtesy if they mentioned an upcoming RIM feature.