Is AT&T Cutting Blackberry Features?

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Late word from The Inquirer is that AT&T (T) may cut the GPS function from the new RIMM (RIMM) Blackberry so that it will not steal from Apple (AAPL) iPhone sales.

AAPL’s iPhone is supposed to be the driver of AT&T’s efforts to get new wireless customers. The wireless company’s fears are that the new Blackberry 8820 will have both GPS and WiFi functions at a price well below the iPhone.

AT&T almost certainly makes more money from the $500 iPhone and its high-priced call plans that its does from the RIMM Blackberry.

RIMM’s shares are up over 160% over the last year, outpacing the AAPL rise of about 80%.

If the news about AT&T blocking the new Blackberry function are true, RIMM’s magnificent rise could be coming to an end.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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