The August 12th AT&T debut of the BlackBerry Torch 9800 has been described as “underwhelming” by Goldman Sachs. Few stores reported sellouts and most sales were driven by existing BlackBerry subscribers upgrades rather than new customers.
RIM’s latest smartphone, its first with BlackBerry 6, has been met with lukewarm reviews. While a nice update over other current BlackBerry devices, it is unremarkable when compared to competitor devices such as the iPhone 4 and the Android-powered Droid X and HTC EVO.
RIM is facing increasing pressure from Android devices and the Apple iPhone. While RIM may have been hoping that the BlackBerry Torch would help it maintain and even increase market share, it looks instead like the manufacturer will need to head back to the drawing table. Will its upcoming BlackPad tablet meet with more success?