Both T-Mobile U.S.A. and Sprint temporarily sold out of RIM's new BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 smartphone last week, but CIO.com's Al Sacco says the brief sellouts aren't really an accurate indicator of strong sales. It looks like I’m not the only one who really likes Research In Motion’s (RIM) brand new BlackBerry Bold smartphone; two of the three major U.S. wireless carriers currently offering the Bold 9900/9930 already sold out of the devices online, albeit briefly. Last week, T-Mobile’s online Web store stated that the Bold 9900 was “temporarily out of stock,” just days after its release, and Sprint’s website stillsays that its version of the handheld, the Bold 9930, is currently unavailable. Shortly after the Bold 9900/9930 hit U.S. store shelves, I posted up one of the most positive smartphone reviews I’ve ever written, and I can say without a doubt that the Bold 9900/9930 is RIM’s best BlackBerry to date…with a few caveats. (Read my evaluation of the new Bold for details.) SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe Neither T-Mobile nor Sprint have released official sales numbers for the new Bold yet, so I can’t say whether or not the temporary sellouts are due to impressive sales or just very short stock. But if I had to guess, I’d say that both T-Mobile and Sprint initially received–or maybe even requested–very few units for the device launch. This seems logical because RIM’s last generation of BlackBerry smartphones didn’t exactly jump off the shelves, and it stands to reason that the wireless carriers wanted to gauge customer interest before taking on too many Bold units. (It also doesn’t hurt consumer perception of the device to say that it has already “sold out,” even if the sellouts don’t really mean much in reality.) In other words, I wouldn’t read too much into T-Mobile or Sprint’s temporary sellouts of the new Bold. In fact, T-Mobile already appears to have replenished its stock–the T-Mobile Bold 9900 is now available again online, though I’ve had trouble finding available units in brick and mortar T-Mobile stores in and around Boston. And Verizon Wireless, the other U.S. carrier currently selling the Bold 9930, hasn’t run out of Bolds online yet either. (Check out a video walkthrough of Verizon’s Bold 9930.) In related news, AT&T last month said it too would release the Bold 9900, but the carrier has not specified when the device will become available to its customers. AS Via TmoNews and CrackBerry Forums Related content brandpost Lessons from the field: Why you need a platform engineering practice (…and how to build it) Adopting platform engineering will better serve customers and provide invaluable support to their development teams. By VMware Tanzu Vanguards Oct 02, 2023 6 mins Software Deployment Devops feature The dark arts of digital transformation — and how to master them Sometimes IT leaders need a little magic to push digital initiatives forward. Here are five ways to make transformation obstacles disappear. By Dan Tynan Oct 02, 2023 11 mins Business IT Alignment Digital Transformation IT Strategy feature What is a project management office (PMO)? The key to standardizing project success The ever-increasing pace of change has upped the pressure on companies to deliver new products, services, and capabilities. And they’re relying on PMOs to ensure that work gets done consistently, efficiently, and in line with business objective By Mary K. Pratt Oct 02, 2023 8 mins Digital Transformation Project Management Tools IT Leadership opinion The changing face of cybersecurity threats in 2023 Cybersecurity has always been a cat-and-mouse game, but the mice keep getting bigger and are becoming increasingly harder to hunt. By Dipti Parmar Sep 29, 2023 8 mins Cybercrime Security Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe