Why people still use BlackBerrys

The majority of the ones that I know like it because of BB Messenger. It keeps every one in touch for free on a worldwide basis. I know so many that all said if BB Messenger is gone so will their BB.

 

I'm a little late in getting into this discussion. I fought getting a BB for a long time. I had this mental image of both the phone & the user as being dull & boring. Then it came time to replace an ailing Tilt2, right when the Captivate, the X10 & the Torch all became available on AT&T. I've had a Treo Pro, so the front facing kb with a touchscreen was very seductive. But I'd really liked an xda-developers build of Android on my Tilt2. And thought that was the direction I was going to go in. Untill I got to the store. Neither the X10 or the Captivate were what I was looking for. But the Torch was just what I was looking for.

Most of what I do is either communication or related to communication. From importing contacts to scheduling functions, the Torch just makes things incredibly easy. Yes, there were some "bumps" till I tried a couple of OS upgrades. And those who know me know I'm anything but dull & boring. And my BB is just as interesting. It makes everything I do so much easier.

 

Maybe this ought to be a broader topic: why people use smartphones. After my previous response, all day I've had images of the Galaxy S commercials in my head. You know, the ones where someone's watching Avatar on the screen. I keep wondering why it's more important how good a phones as a portable entertainment unit than as a phone or organizer. Have our priorities shifted that much?

 

I agree that there's nothing wrong with a phone being able to show video & play music. But I think priorities are a little out of kilter when the entertainment capabilities are the things that carriers & manufacturers hype over the intended functions. And I suspect that the iPhone 4 issues are less to do with poor design than that those skewed priorities were inherent in the design process.

 

I admit the iPhone does a lot of things well. And, in the non-phone areas, raised the bar a lot. But, in every successful business model I've ever seen, you use what differentiates you from the competition, not how you're just like them, to draw customers. My feeling is that every competing commercial that says "I do X just like the iPhone" gives Apple another customer. Consumers want what works and they're not attracted by wannabes.

There were several design parameters that, according to various interviews had high priority for the iPhone 4. They wanted it to look cool, they wanted it differentiated from previous models, & they were looking to downsize a little. Yes, Apple wanted to improve call quality from previous failures. But I still believe the design error was based at least as much on their goals of looks, differentiation & size as it was related to lack of engineering forethought.

And this does still relate to why I still use a Blackberry. The Torch has multiple features that I like from previous smartphones. It also retains the good things that made Blackberry a winner in the business sector. If people ever find out those same qualities work well for personal use, there might be a BB Revival! Does the Torch have issues? Yes. Although the hardware is first class, the initial version of OS6 had a lot of shortcomings & it took several leaked versions to address a lot of that. But the Torch with the latest version of the OS is more than interesting. I've done some RSS updates, email, several sms conversations, plus several long phone calls -- 13 hours off the charger & still sitting at 68% battery. Which tells me that, if I had to, I could probably push close to two days away from the charger. Something else not likely with most other phones. Except maybe some of the other BBS.

 

That's where you & I can agree to disagree. Do you sell your product based on how much it's like all the others or do you market the things that allow it to surpass the others? You have to give value to your product that makes it stand out from the rest of the competition. Otherwise the customer has no reason to select your product instead of someone else's. He has to see a benefit to him that other products don't give him.

There was an interesting article recently pointing out that most smartphones (including some of the iPhones) sell for $199.99. Because that's the price point where consumers see the smartphone as having value. A lower price for a new phone gives it the impression of less value to the customer. A higher price, in most cases, is considered too expensive, so the carrier sells fewer phones with 2 year contracts. As a result, the carrier's cost is more the determiner of when the carrier makes a profit from a phone & contract than what the consumer contributes for the phone. And most smartphones are in the same or similar price ranges.

Carriers advertise their wares based on their strengths. Verizon hypes its superior coverage, AT&T wants you to "Rethink Possibilities" (look at the variety of OSes & phones we've got), Sprint & T-Mobile hype lower prices for the same services, plus more services (ignoring the lesser coverage). The iPhone has "an app for that". Verizon's Android series is "Droid does". There may be implications that you're better than the competition. But you don't really want your audience thinking much about the competition.

Actually, I'm only disappointed that we hadn't gotten to do this a long time ago. I think we make each other think. Which is a good thing. The Bible describes it as "iron sharpening iron", speaking of those of like interest, friendship, respect, etc. mutually drawing each other to a higher level. So, I'm enjoying this.

 

Well, most of my smartphones have been WM (the 8525 had 5.0, the Treo Pro had 6.1 & the Tilt2 has 6.5). Each one has been tweakable to how I wanted it & each has had a physical kb. Of those, the Treo Pro was the most "me" -- except I would have liked a larger screen. But in every case, there were UIs & apps that I added in to make it work the way I do. The Torch gives me the larger screen, but still has the physical kb, it does things the way I like them done.

I've tried several Android builds from xda-developers on my Tilt2 & really liked it. But, when I went to the store to try out the X10, the Captivate & the Torch, the two Android phones just didn't seem to have it for me. Maybe I'm just not ready to cut my ties with the physical kb.

The only "customizing" I've done on the Torch is Shai's wallpaper changer. And, when the OS6 version comes to App World, Pocket Informant will handle calendar & contacts. I've used it on WM 6.5 & like it well enough to add it to my Torch arsenal. I'd really like to see the ability to add more than one favorites "page" . On my WM phones, I always had a way of creating a "page" or list of my most important phone #s, so I could get to those quickly & easily.

One other note. The jury's still out on BBM groups. I only am in the one from here & just getting to know the guys & how it all works. I may also look at GoogleTalk. I think there's a version for BB. But I may end up just keeping it to individual contact. I'm neither fast or excessively accurate with typing. Although I've done chat on the pc, real time group communication has never been that big with me. So, we'll see.

 

I liked BlackBerry for the year I used it. Very simple to use. I just gotten bored with it... I gave up and went to a dumbphone 2 years ago. I recently bought a Droid Incredible.

I think folks still use BlackBerry because it's simple and secure. BBM is a lovely bonus.

Also, most BlackBerry devices are relatively cheap compared to its Windows and Android counterparts. Most carriers have free BlackBerry phones. Full price is near $300 for a Curve. Even MetroPCS sells theirs for $250ish and Boost charges $150 on its website...

 

You would have been bored with OS6, too. From what I can see, the UI & functionality is improved, but there's no big shift to something new (other than touchscreen capability). And, with the weekly updates that do a LOT to improve the OS, my sense that it was rushed out to make sales numbers probably has some basis.

There are things besides BBM that RIM does really well. They've got communication as a whole down pat in ways that most other OSes don't. And they make it all easy. To the point thast I'm so much more involved in using my Torch that I have less interest in customizing.. My previous phone had an app that let me rotate between 5 different UIs (each tweaked the way I like it) & I could boot out off WM 6.5 into a custom flavor of Android (also tweaked to my liking). I had a lot of fun customizing that phone, but spent more time on that than actually using it. When I got the Torch, I started being more involved in using my phone & didn't feel as much of a need to customize. I was too busy using my smartphone for what it was intended to do.

 

I'm a new blackberry user, i has a blackberry pearl 8120 a few years ago and now i have a new blackberry bold 9780 - i can't use it yet because it has a network lock on it but i really like it and i am back to blackberry becuse i can type faster with it and also the BBM is one of the best things on the market.

 

Although blackberry has been really popular for a long time, truth is it is losing more and more customers to android and Apple, and other android phone giants like samsung.

 

But still Blackberry is providing good facilities and functions then apple and android, Its main function is Blackberry messenger which has been used any where in the world it connects people, that's why still many people like to use Blackberry's Cell Phones.

 

I have been looking at new BlackBerries, iPhones, Androids and WP7 (Mango). I have researched several handsets and carriers. But it has come down to what my needs are which is good e-mail, good battery life, nice keypad for e-mailing and texting and a good calendar. I'm not into a lot of apps for games...I don't listen to music (yet) on my phone and don't watch movies or TV. My time is spent doing e-mail's, texting and some minor web browsing if it's connected with an e-mail. Also I spend some time on Facebook. So what I need is a good messaging phone, and that's what BlackBerry does for me.

A friend of mine sent me this article link from TechnoBuffalo on the top 5 phones for T-Mobile. One of the 5 picked was for the BlackBerry Bold 9900. Here's what the poster said regarding the phone, it's limitations and all:

"I’ll tell you what: That one week I used T-Mo’s Bold 9900 as my daily driver I got more work done using only my phone then I ever do with an iPhone. Maybe I’m old and have last-gen thumbs, but to me there’s something about typing on a BlackBerry keyboard that no touchscreen will ever replicate. Also, no matter how outdated it feels and no matter how lame its Web browser, BB OS was made for messaging like no other mobile platform to date."

Top 5 T-Mobile Phones | TechnoBuffalo

BRAVO! That said it for me! :highclap::smilebig:

I was thinking at one point of switching to Android, so I loaded Google Sync in my BB9700 to back-up my contacts and calendar. Well the contacts sync'd OK, but I kept getting "sync failure" in regards to the calendar. I also don't have Outlook on my home PC, but not sure if that would help either. Now while I could enter them by hand for the full year...right now I just don't have the time or mental energy to do that. So for the moment I'm going to get a new BlackBerry...back-up the data from my 9700 to the DM, then feed it into the new BB. Done!

 

Good luck Chris!

 

I miss BBM as well, and truthfully to some degree their keyboard.

 

Thanks Joe! :smilebig:

 

While most consumers these days are not buying BlackBerrys, there are still devotees...One reason behind this that people still prefer BlackBerry is the ability to install applications from third-party sources.. BlackBerry fans hope that RIM can hold on to the enterprise and win over some new fans while they wait.

 

Well I think that people have a liking for the features and it is then the addiction :googlyeye to them. I have this addiction to the BB sets and I do not give a damn to any other device to switch I have Blackberry torch and still I am using it. Waiting for the BB 10 series as well now