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I always thought it was kind of odd that The Source by Circuit City was selling the new BlackBerry Pearl 8220 $50 more than everyone else. Now I know the reason was to try and squeeze a few extra bucks out of us before pulling the Chapter 11 switch.

Feeling the economic crunch, United States based Circuit City Stores Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection, forcing InterTAN Canada Ltd. (who owns 772 “The Source by Circuit City” stores) to follow suit and file for creditor protection. Ron Cuthbertson, president of InterTAN said “We regret the necessity of this action and will be working diligently with our suppliers, employees and creditors to produce a successful holiday selling season”.

InterTAN has said the stores will stay open and will honour all returns, exchange warranties and gift cards. On a high note if you are looking for some good deals this holiday season, The Source could be a good bet for cheap electronics, phones… but don’t get their warranty!

This year has been very profitable for the iPhone and some Canadians who first opposed its entrance have now embraced it. A new study by SquareTrade (a company that sells cell phone warranties) shows the Apple iPhone with even more success when it comes to reliability over RIM’s BlackBerry and Palm’s Treo products.

The survey was based on the past year and over 15,000 handsets that showed that 11.2% of Blackberry’s  reported malfunctions, 16.2% of Palm Treo’s reported malfunctions and only 5.6% of iPhone reported malfunctions.

The “malfunctions” ranged from:

- Software & Features
- Battery Problems
- Bluetooth/Accessories/Camera
- Antenna/Hardware/Casing
- Touchpad/Screen/Keypad
- Call Quality Issues
- Power Issues
- Other

Read the whole survey here

[IntoMobile]

Checked out Usher at the Kool Haus in Toronto on Saturday. This was sponsored by Sony Ericsson as part of his “One Night Stand Tour”. I must say he does have good moves and the ladies love him! Captured a video (not so good sound) of the opening song:

We were sent this tip and had to follow that rabbit down the Bell checkout process. The results found was a nice carrot of the recently launched HTC Touch Diamond for $99.95. The original price on a 3-year plan is $199.95.

Give it a try yourself:
1. Log on to Bell.ca
2. Click HTC Touch Diamond for $199.95 on a 3-year plan and “Add to Cart”
3. Select an area (we picked Toronto) and click continue
4. Choose your rate plan – we picked “Personal”, then the new “Rollover 30″ plan and click “Select”
5. And Bingo!! The luck $99.95 shows up!

All we can say is BRING ON THE HTC TOUCH PRO!!!
Targeted release date for the Touch Pro is November 14th.

Primus has set forth their latest offer by throwing double minutes into the mix, well kinda. 3 phones are available with the following prices based on a 3-year plan: Nokia 5300 XpressMusic for $39.95, Motorola W510 $19.95 and the Nokia 6085 for $0.00.

Now the monthly plans are as follows with minutes:
$20/month: 200 minutes now increased to a total of 400 minutes with offer
$25/month: 250 minutes now increased to a total of 500 minutes with offer
$35/month: 350 minutes now increased to a total of 700 minutes with offer
$50/month: 600 minutes now increased to a total of 1200 minutes with offer

In addition to the above they throw in free text messages (up to a max up 2,500), $0.05 long distance minutes, Air Miles, Call Waiting and Conference Calling.

Now before you get all excited and think you are getting a stellar deal, one must read the fine print:  “A $6.95 monthly system access fee, E911 fee, taxes, long distance, additional airtime, calling features, roaming, text messaging and data usage charges are billed separately…. A $200 dollar early cancellation fee applies… $25 activation fee applies…” and the kicker of this plan is that it’s only double minutes for the first year of the plan:

“*Double your minutes applies for the first 12 months of your 2-3 year contract term.”

Lear more at Primus here

Solo Mobile, Bell’s little baby, has released its first BlackBerry – the Pearl 8130 in White.

This should be exciting news as the Pearl is a reliable device, with access to e-mail, GPS and the web for a reasonable cost. The Pearl comes with a 2.0 megapixel camera with video, SureType QWERTY keyboard, 3.5 mm headphone jack, Bluetooth enabled… weighs in at 96 grams.

Solo has priced their Pearl 8130 at the following levels: 3-year: $250, 2-year: $300, 1-year: $400, 30-day/Prepaid: $450.

Now, they do include a discount and drop the price to $150 with a BlackBerry Combo plan. But rest assured the combo plan is not a healthy one. For example, the basic is a standard $45 a month with a one-time $35 connection charge, couple this only 150 daytime minutes, no browsing… this baby is a bust.

On the other hand, Bell is selling the BlackBerry Pearl in many colours and can get this on a 3-year plan for $0.00, include the $45 monthly talk/e-mail – include the new “Rollover Plan” that has 400 minutes, evening and weekends free (9pm – 7am), pay the monthly fee of $8.95 and one time connection fee of $35, add the text message budle for $10, throw in extended talk time for $7 and you are still ahead by about 30 bucks.

The only way the Solo BlackBerry is good for anybody to consider is if they are currently with a plan and would like to upgrade to a BlackBerry. Visit Solo here

Telus has added another music device to its line-up with the announcement of the LG Chocolate GiG… otherwise known as the LG Chocolate 3 or LG 8560.

Besides all the standard features of a phone (contacts, calendar, speakerphone), this flip phone weighs 98 grams and its overall dimensions are 48.5mm x 98.5mm x 16.4mm.

Comes loaded with 1GB of internal music memory, MicroSD slot for up to 8GB, 3.5mm headset jack, 2 megapixel camera with video capabilities, 2.2″ QVGA main display (External display: 1.45″) and stereo Bluetooth.

This is available at Telus for:
$99.99 on a 3-year contract
$199.99 on a 2-year contract
$249.99 on a 1-year contract
$299.99 Outright

We will have a video review shortly.

Bell recently rebranded themselves and want to extend you the chance to rebrand your new BlackBerry. If you buy a Curve 8330, Pearl 8130, or a 8830 World Edition you will get a free decal from Decal Girl and free matching wallpaper for your display. There are over 65 different designs to choose from such as Bird Song, Camo, Gypsy. This promo lasts until February 28, 2009 – Check it out here

The Samsung Cleo from Bell has been officially launched today in Pink, Blue and “Champagne” only available through Solo. This measure 5.5 inches and has a full QWERTY keyboard, 1.3 megapixel camera, MP3 player with expandable memory up to 8GB.

To make things sweeter there is a holiday promo that has 15% off coupon for Cake Cosmetics, and a Cleo phone “Charm”. The price plans are as follows:

1-year: $249.95
2-year: $149.95
3-year: $99.95
Outright: $299.95
Special holiday promo for $49.95 (between November 7th – December 24th)

Adel Bazerghi, Senior Vice President of Products at Bell said “The CLEO is a great smartphone capturing a uniquely elegant combination of form and function. Along with text messaging our clients will love using the QWERTY keyboard to send picture messages and email, and access their favourite social networking sites.”

A full interactive site has been produced to promote this phone and its features. It gives a good breakdown with pictures. In addition, Canadian fashion designer Katya Revenko will be creating “stylish and eco-friendly” accessory bags for CLEO to be viewed at the Fashion Takes Action Gala. Check out the websites here: www.kissesfromcleo.com or www.baisersdecleo.com.

TELUS has reported their Q3 results and the past was friendly also. Specifically for wireless… here is a summary:

- External revenues increased by $96.5 million or 8.7% to $1.2 billion in the third quarter of 2008

- Wireless data revenue increased $65 million or 56% due to the continued adoption of full function smartphones and increased adoption of data services such as text messaging and e-mail

- ARPU (average revenue per subscriber unit per month) declined by 1% to $64.14 compared to the same quarter a year ago, but was up sequentially from the second quarter of 2008 by $1.41. The fast-growing data component of $10.19, represented 16% of ARPU, while the voice component continued to decline as a result of pricing pressure, lower Mike service ARPU, use of included-minute rate plans, subscriber loading from the new basic Koodo Mobile service and lower inbound roaming

- Total wireless subscriber base reached the 6 million milestone (5.98 million to be exact). Normalized net subscriber additions increased by 32% to 176,900 from the same quarter in 2007, a TELUS third quarter record. Postpaid net additions were 158,500, an increase of 61%, while net prepaid loading decreased to 18,400. When including the impact of the analogue network turndown, net additions increased 11% to 149,300. These results include those from TELUS’ postpaid Koodo service launched in March 2008

- Cost of acquisition per gross addition decreased 10% year-over-year to $341 reflecting slightly higher advertising and promotions costs spread over the 23% increase in gross additions, a higher proportion of new subscribers from lower cost distribution channels and efficient marketing spending on a per-unit basis

- Normalized blended monthly subscriber churn increased slightly to 1.52% from 1.43% a year ago, excluding 27,600 deactivations from the analogue network turndown this quarter