Google for BlackBerry — no talking

by Mathew on January 13, 2006 · View Comments

Got a BlackBerry and eager to use Google Talk for voice-over-Internet calls? Keep dreaming, friend. Russell Shaw, who blogs for ZDNet on IP telephony — and also happens to have a blog devoted to the BlackBerry handheld from Canada’s own Research In Motion — clarified something I was wondering about as far as the recent announcement that Google Talk would soon be available for the CrackBerry.

If you read the press release, you’ll notice that there’s lots of mentions of Google Talk, but no real mention of… well, actually talking. Russell explains why in his recent post: Because RIM depends on carriers such as Verizon and Sprint/Nextel to subsidize and market its handhelds, and the carriers would hit the roof if they found out that RIM was providing a way for BlackBerry users to get around the calling plans of the company’s partners. Russell posted something to his BlackBerry blog too.

Makes sense for RIM. Too bad for BlackBerry users — although it’s nice to see the handheld maker branching out.

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  • http://www.stuartmacdonald.ca Stuart MacDonald

    Interesting. I’ve been using RIM’s own ‘berry-to-’berry IM thing for a few months now (pretty slick btw) and hadn’t thought about the money flow. Does anybody know how it works in that case? My assumption is that, since it works PIN to PIN (I think) the airtime would fall under regular ‘berry data charges from the carrier. Or does it “look” like an SMS or something?

    - Stuart

  • Mathew

    That’s interesting, Stuart — I’d totally forgotten about the PIN to PIN thing you can do with Berrys. I imagine those messages would just look like data as far as charges are concerned, but I have to say I don’t know. My first question on hearing about the Google Talk thing was whether the talk feature were actually removed or just disabled — because if it’s the latter, then there’s the possibility some enterprising software hacker might be able to re-enable it.

  • http://evans.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2006/1/14/1675559.html Mark Evans

    An Alternative to the Blackberry? Not Yet.

    In a continuation of yesterday’s Top Dog post (Google), it’s fascinating to see the energy spent by the media trying to push a Blackberry-killer. The latest contestant is the Wall St. Journal, which had a story earlier this week suggesting Resea…

  • http://valenok.clubpage.de/ cirkyl

    Great website! Bookmarked! I am impressed at your work!

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