The IT Nerd

Earlier today, I posted a story on the BlackBerry Z30 being available for sale on October 15th to Canadians. I noted at the time that the only company that was missing from this news was Rogers. Fast forward midday. The Toronto Star reports that Rogers will not be carrying the Z30, though Rogers did not respond to them for comment. That seems to have set off a bit of a firestorm. Here’s something that I got on my Twitter feed:

@The_IT_Nerd @RogersHelps @RogersBuzz Disappointing and #antiCanadian. Even T-mobile will stock it.

— Piero Rocca (@drinkfresca) October 3, 2013

Browsing Twitter, I am seeing stuff like this:

@CTVKitchener @CTVNews If #Rogers won’t stock it, I will change providers to get my #blackberry Z30 — James Mills (@JimWaterloo) October 3, 2013

Wow RT @michaeloliveira: Very interesting that Rogers has chosen not to carry BlackBerry’s Z30 #cdntech http://t.co/Uy00Q2APqe — Mark Goldberg (@Mark_Goldberg) October 3, 2013

@WR_Record Yes BB is struggling. Never the less BB has great new devices! SHAME on ROGERS for not supporting Canadian born Z30…… Its sad

— Mambellas Deli (@Mambellas) October 3, 2013

RT @MB_JohnPeters: Thanks @SaskTel for supporting a Canadian company that needs some support right now by carrying the @BlackBerry #Z30

— SaskTel (@SaskTel) October 3, 2013

It seems that this has stirred up some patriotism and some anti-Rogers feelings. That’s something that I typically don’t see here in Canada.

Now I have reached out to Rogers for a comment, but let’s take a step back and look at this dispassionately. Rogers was not part of the announcement that BlackBerry made this morning. But they could still decide to carry this BlackBerry. Or perhaps they have and want to have a separate announcement. Or perhaps the assumptions of everyone in the Twitterverse are correct and they’ve decided to say “hell to the no” to use a Glee reference to BlackBerry’s latest device.

The fact is that they haven’t confirmed that they are or are not going to. Thus, we do not know.

If I were Rogers, I’d very quickly put out something that puts this to bed either way. Because this isn’t going to help their brand image the longer it stays out there with no clear answer. As for the Twitterverse, I say wait until there’s a clear cut answer to this question before grabbing the pitchforks and torches.

Updates of course as they come.

UPDATE: This will be the first of many updates on this story I suspect. As evidence to support my suggestion that people should wait until all the facts are in before calling Rogers anti-Canadian or anything of the sort, I present my story on BlackBerry’s announcement of the Q5. At the time, Rogers were not on the list of Canadian carriers. But the device was later announced via Twitter and is currently on Fido. So, again I say that we should wait until Rogers says something on this before passing judgement.

UPDATE #2: David Friend of the Canadian Press just posted this to his Twitter feed:

#Rogers tells me on decision to skip Z30: “We believe we can fulfil our customers’ demand for a #BlackBerry device with our current line-up”

— David Friend (@dj_friend) October 3, 2013

In the absence of an official press release from Rogers, this is the closest to a confirmation that exists.

UPDATE #3: David Friend has had an article that he wrote appear in The Globe And Mail which has further details.

This entry was posted on October 3, 2013 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags BlackBerry, Rogers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.