RIM Flips for T-Mobile USA: Will the new Pearl variant attract and repel?

On paper, handset vendors and their carrier patrons can be very persuasive. In the hand, new devices can be seductive.
At the checkout counter, however, or on the street where reality bites, a multitude of factors suddenly crowd in like so many shark’s teeth, threatening to shred the perfect picture envisioned by vendor and carrier.
And yet handset hits and solid sales performers periodically defy the conventional wisdom. Qui