Well dear readers, I've decided to resign my commission in the BlackBerry Army. It's been a long journey that spanned Nokias, HTCs, SEs, and Motorolas. But up until now, no matter the carrier, it always ended with a BlackBerry. Well that tradition is coming to end. You may be asking yourself, 'but why now, when the Bold is set to be released in a few months?'. Well I'm just not interested in the Bold, not at all. Yes, RIM has finally created something that is finally worth putting in my pocket, but the fact still remains that it's still gonna be a BlackBerry. Fancy screen, better camera and new OS aside, it's still gonna have that god awful track ball. Worse still is that at the end of the day, all of that newness aside, it's still gonna have the same underlying OS. The same boring, tired OS that hasn't changed since RIM first introduced the damn things.
Sure RIM is gonna beautify it so that it looks pretty on the outside, but on the inside is where it counts and RIM is way behind market leaders Nokia and (believe it or not) Microsoft. S60 and Windows Mobile have thousands of ready to download applications that can instantly change your device to anything you want it to be. Like the idea of a mobile Sling player, S60 and WinMo have you covered. Wanna Geotag your photos, again the competition has you covered. With the exception of CDMA based 'berrys why is it that only now are we seeing 3G enabled BlackBerrys? It's not just that either.
Everywhere you look people have BlackBerrys. Corporate guys, soccer moms, teenagers, your grandmother probably has a BlackBerry. It's not the ubiquity that bothers me (more power to RIM) its that these people have them because other people have them. How many people do you know have 'berrys and dont have data plans attached to them? How many people do you know that have Pearls because they are cute and can text real nice? These people aren't getting them because they are powerhouse email devices that can probably organize their day better than Outlook can. They have them cuz all of their girlfriends have them and oh look the new Pearl now comes in pink!
Why does this piss me off, well it's because just like the Razr before it, getting these things out to the masses means cutting cost and keeping material cost down. Remember how luxurious the Razr was when it first came out then Moto decided everyone needed a Razr, and made a zillion clones of it. They all sucked, even the signature brand fell under the cheap feeling curse. Look at your Curve or your Pearl. Go on look at it. It's a piece of crap. Cheap plastic and rubber. $449 (MSRP, no contract) for that!? I'll pass, for $50 bucks more I'll go buy an AT&T Tilt. Or for $100 less I can get a BlackJack 2 or for $10 dollars more a Nokia E61i.
Now I understand that some people actually do use their 'berrys to it's full potential, data attached and everything. And if you are a monster texter (like me) then a BlackBerry is probably working out real nice for you. But for me, after years (literally) of using one, the time has come to explore other options and go in a different direction. Maybe one day RIM will win me back (I'm sure im not alone in this rant) but in the mean time, there are just too many non BlackBerry devices coming out just begging to be put in my pocket. Touch Pro, SE Experia 1, E71, E66, hell even the iPhone 3G is looking pretty good.
Now, back to my headline. Come back in a few days for my first impressions of HTCs Touch Dual, big brother to the orginal Touch.
1 comment:
o...get the blackberry, because your girlfriend has it? Is that why you have one? ;) ....and yes my grandmother does have a blackberry, how did you know?
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