I don't find the reporting poor - neither BB or carriers wanted to disclose any information - either because they did not know (my bet is on that) or they did not want to tell.
I guess whichever company makes the first move will be outgunned and the big question to the carriers will be if they are willing to create a zero-rated data-plan and subsidise data usage or if they are going to milk the customer base.
Honestly, subsidising data via the carrier makes no sense - all SPs are too greedy (especially considering that BB10 is going to be data hungry, once you use the hub with BBM, FB, LinkedIn, Twitter and start pulling down multimedia from Appworld). So it will be up to the carriers to make or break BB - quite astonishing, as I would have thought that BB would put more pressure on carriers, but then again, BB lost too much marketshare and credibility over the last few years.
In discussion with BB staff yesterday I did find it very bizarre that neither they nor any SP representatives at the launch wanted to mention anything. Just looking at the US launch (where you are locked into a 3 year contract), the BB will be more expensive than any competing device.
No-one at BB wanted to outright explain that BIS/BES will be dead and that "it will be up to the carrier to determine pricing". A comment I made to BB was that this must be the biggest marketing mistake and how on earth BB could not properly understand the South African or Indian (key regions for the companies success) market. In between the lines you could read that BB is shifting to a "premium" customer base and will leave the userbase wanting free internet/messaging behind.
I just found that although yesterday's launch event in Joburg was very "glitzy" and BB spend (wasted) tons of cash to create a good impression, the event still felt somewhat disorganised and it lacked any form of excitement and passion - both from BB staff and partners.
The majority of showcased local apps are mediocre (understandable, since most partners had not more than 10 weeks to get something going and had to develop on a platform where features such as Hub where not available on the alpha devices).
I guess a big anticlimax (besides the Alicia Keys announcement and that the RIM jokes will be a thing of the past) was that all auditorium attendees received a BB10 device which will delivered sometime before the official SA launch.
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