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A rumour’s floating around that the speed of the built-in Maps application will be dummed down on Bell’s BlackBerry handsets in order to make their pay service better by comparison. It’s not entirely unheard of for carriers to favour their private $10/month service to what’s already built into the device for free (except maybe wireless traffic costs for map data). BlackBerry maps might end up taking 2-10 minutes to get a satellite lock instead of the usual 15-20 seconds. That’s quite the difference, and will probably turn a lot of people off from using location-based services altogether.
Firstly, I hope the rumor’s totally bunk. Second, I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t. Third, if it isn’t, the practice better not spread to other Canadian carriers. RIM’s done a fine job loading up fully-functional features, but if service providers are just going to intercept it, it’s undoing all of that good work. Similar worries have been raised over Android; if the system is really that easy to change, then carriers will lock it down and limit services in a way that’s ultimately profitable for them. Sure, good for business, but bad for PR.
[via Howard Forums]
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
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David
