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Christopher Dawson
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I'm getting a...BlackBerry?

By | August 18, 2010, 3:00am PDT

Summary: BlackBerry. One big anachronism. Except, apparently, for me. Sigh.

I didn’t know people still bought those anymore.

It’s kind of a long story and it’s not worth going into details, but suffice to say, one of my clients needs to be able to get a hold of me quickly, easily, and regularly. Obviously, I have a Droid and can connect to any mail server under the sun, but this client’s IT policies are not quite as laissez-faire as your average SMB. Meaning that if I need push email, I’m getting it through one of their corporate CrackBerries and not one of those hippie Droids (I’m paraphrasing their IT, folks, of course, who are remarkably nice, if a bit, well, corporate). I need push email from their Exchange servers, so it looks like I’ll be carrying around a couple of phones for a while.

I used to have a BlackBerry and for a long time, I loved it. It did precisely what I needed it to. Emails and text messages were nothing for my blurred thumbs that knew the nubby little keys like old friends. Then I realized that there was more to a mobile life than email and my CrackBerry lost its appeal. I kicked the habit cold turkey, embraced Android and never looked back.

And now I have another BlackBerry arriving today. It’s a Bold, so obviously it’s an upgrade over then ancient Curve I recycled when I left my last job, but it’s about as bold as a classy pair of khakis. I gave one a spin this weekend at a Verizon store, curious if the latest Bold might be interesting enough to remind me why I loved my old Curve. It only reminded me why I traded it in for a Droid. And why even corporate users are trading in their BlackBerries for iPhones.

Next: Torch? Bold? Curve? It doesn’t matter. It’s still a BlackBerry. »

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Topics

RIM BlackBerry, E-mail, Handhelds, Online Communications, Hardware, Christopher Dawson

Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.

Disclosure

Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.). He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change. He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have). Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others. Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair. Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards. Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap. Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff. Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable. Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.

Biography

Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson grew up in Seattle, back in the days of pre-antitrust Microsoft, coffeeshops owned by something other than Starbucks, and really loud, inarticulate music. He escaped to the right coast in the early 90's and received a degree in Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University. While there, he began a career in health and educational information systems, with a focus on clinical trials and related statistical programming and database modeling. This focus led him to several positions at Johns Hopkins, a couple-year stint in private industry, teaching high school math and technology, and 2 years as the technology director for his local school district. Most recently, he started his own consulting business and is now the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network provider. He lives with his wife, five kids (yes, 5), 2 dogs, and a hateful cat in a small town in north-central Massachusetts. Although he is no longer teaching, his roles with WizIQ and ZDNet allow him to continue helping students and teachers add value to education with technology rather than merely adding to the bottom line.

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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
saieazby 25th Sep
@alexisgarcia72@... What namely can you think is the distinction among generic Propecia plus buy Finpecia?
View in thread
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Get a real smartphone: Nokia
Dietrich T. Schmitz, ~ Your Linux Advocate 18th Aug 2010
Chris,
Nokia supports ActiveSync with a product called 'Mail for Exchange'.

I use it on my N95.

It's a no-brainer.
You can do everything with Nokia.
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
alexisgarcia72@... 18th Aug 2010
@Dietrich T. Schmitz, Your Linux Advocate

You can?t do everything with the Nokia. In a blackberry enviroment, you control all your blackberries in your organization from the Blackberry Enterprise Server. You can see lot of info and restrict, install software, see status, activate wirelessly, etc.

You can even send a Kill command in the case the blackberry was stolen, you can send screen messages, reset passwords, and lot of stuff, everything from the BES server.

More than that, a user in another location can lost the blackberry, purchase a new one and without IT knowledge, can activate and restore ALL DATA again wirelessly. All data I MEAN not only contacts, calendars, tasks, notes and emails, but font, colors, backgrounds, templates, text caches, favorites, bookmarks, etc etc etc.

Blackberry is an amazing technology. An email in BB enviroment is incomparable with other platforms. We receive email in the Exchange / Outlook / BB at the SAME TIME, no delays, not even a second!!!
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It's not about email
MobileAdmin 18th Aug 2010
I oversee a large Blackberry environement and it is and will likely remain the standard for awhile I'd like to know what do you want to use your Android for? It's likely nothing business related.

People still do not connect the issue is not providing email on X device, hell I can make any device get Exchange emaul. What I cannot do is manage the other devices to the level one can with BB/BES. Once you get beyond 100 mobile devices you need more controls then Exchange ActiveSync or having none with a POP / IMAP pull. Whereever your data goes your going to want some control over it.

Now it's 2010 and email is still a huge driver but not the lone one. What do you do with internally created mobile devices, how do you deploy them enmasse, how do you manage the updates to them. Sure others have a "App" market/store but that is not in your business control, you are just another user of the system. BES allows full push, management of any application. It also provides VPN access to internal resources without having to open additional firewall rules.

For any company that is doing unified communication BES has PBX intergration to allow WiFi and low cost routing. The BB is just an extension of anything you run in the enterprise.

Every other device is just that - a device. Last I looked most corporations have a baseline and don't support any and everything. One - it's expensive, Two - it's a support nightmare and Three - kiss your compliance / security goodbye.

The Verizon Bold is a solid device and I hope you give it a chance for what it's meant for. If your BES policy allows it install some of the better Blackberry Apps to extend the functionality of the device:

Evernote
Poynt
Google Maps
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Not sure I understand
gwalachmai 18th Aug 2010
You haven't actually said what the BlackBerry is missing. "only do a little of what the people who have to live by their phones 24/7 want them to" - like what? "Droid will [keep] me connected to everything else" - like what? BlackBerry does a _lot_ more than just email, c'mon, it's 2010.
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
CobraA1 18th Aug 2010
"I didn?t know people still bought those anymore."

Most businesses do, last I checked.

ZDNet's "exaggerate the deaths of everybody but the current new guy" attitude does not paint anywhere near an accurate picture of anything.

"Then I realized that there was more to a mobile life than email and my CrackBerry lost its appeal."

The phone a business gives you is about the needs of the business - not your own personal needs. I personally prefer to always have a separate phone for the non-business side of my life.

"If you said the BlackBerry, how old are you, exactly?"

Who cares?
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
dc@... 18th Aug 2010
I agree - the N95 was a terrific phone ans the X6 is none too shabby either, but before corporates go all iPhone (or indeed 'droid or Blackberry) it's useful to put it all in context, take a step back, and have a good old fashioned requirements capture ...

http://www.microsperience.com/?p=3520 - Change prepares the ground for revolution, as my colleague at Telesperience put it.
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
allargon 18th Aug 2010
I love how the tech analysts hate that the Blackberry (#1 in the US) and Symbian (#1 in the world) are still the dominant smartphone platforms no matter what hype they praise on the iPhone and Android platforms.

Too bad you're on Verizon. The Bold 9700 is leagues better than the 9650.
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
RobertMoore12@... 18th Aug 2010
@allargon Verizon has gone to the 9800.
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
alexisgarcia72@... 18th Aug 2010
@allargon

Blackberry w/ BES integration and Wireless Enterprise Activation is incomparable. Is the best for the bussiness, no doubt!!
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
saieazby 25th Sep
@alexisgarcia72@... What namely can you think is the distinction among generic Propecia plus buy Finpecia?
0 Votes
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
paulj_edm 18th Aug 2010
I dont really get what your getting at. As you said its strengths are messaging, battery life and integration into corporate systems, appears to satisfy its target market very well in my opinion. I don't get an unlimited data plan at work anyways, expensive, so I can only really use it for work. As you said if you want something new and cutting edge, and are willing to pay for it, then your right there are a ton of really cool options.
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I don't see the difference for the emails
Maarek 18th Aug 2010
you are paying another $30~$40 for the blackberry connect, but the built in push works just fine through webmail. Like the blackberry, the constant email checking does drain the battery quicker, and you will have one less phone to carry. Oh well. More gadgets to forget that ends up in the was or swimming pool.
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Boys with toys....
dwighthendricks 18th Aug 2010
I've used 8 devices in 10 years, on T-Mobile, AT&T & Verizon (my company switched 3 times). Nothing will ever take the place of BlackBerry for my very heavy & serious business use. All the rest are toys IMO. I don't need my business device to take pictures, play music or videos, or cook my supper. I need it to help me crank out 150+ emails a day when I'm on the road. Unfortunately, the Bold 9700 my company sent me in December is the worst I've used. I haven't liked it since day one -- AT&T/Sprint 9000 was superior, but unfortunately the wrong carriers -- so for the 4th time in 4 years, I have returned again to my BlackBerry 8700 which pre-dates everything but email. It's still a remarkably sturdy & efficient device and it gets the job done. To me that speaks of unequalled quality.

And I can only assume you haven't yet reached puberty if you "didn't know people still bought those any more." You have obviously never been in an upper level executive position, or you'd know that the lack of bells & whistles are the LAST reason an experienced user would ever give up his BlackBerry.
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
mathenytech 18th Aug 2010
All you writers ever do is dog AT&T. I do IT consulting in Ohio. I have traveled all over the country and never had a problem with AT&T. I go side to side with other carrier users all the time and get faster downloads than them. I also own an iphone 4 and an android. They are great on vacation. But but them side by side with my blackberry they lose every time when it comes to business. In sending mail from all three different devices set up the same, the blackberry sends and receives mail in seconds. The others do this some but take up to 10-20 minutes some times. Maybe you should write about things outside the bubble that all you writers live in. Just because you are in a bad area for a carrier does not mean that everyone is. If a client receives my email response in a minute or two it looks a lot better to them than taking 20 minutes ....but hey....sorry...my screen has better resolution? Or maybe...sorry...but i have a better phone it just takes longer to send back to you? Maybe you should do a real world test and see what really works...not just what you think is the coolest.
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
landonthegr8 18th Aug 2010
@mathenytech AT&T really does suck though. It really does. Congrats my friend on being a 1 in a million who doesn't have trouble on this network. Not sayin.. I'm just sayin..
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry? Let's be nice grownups please.
Liv&DieN LA 18th Aug 2010
Can we suffice it to say that Blackberry is still very usefull for email and for taking calls?

But it is great for much of the "frivolity" that us geeks love to waste our time with too, if you will only check out the apps that are available. My year old CURVE takes better photos than just about any mobile phone that i have seen, Facebook and Twitter work great, I love Hullomail for my visual voice mail, I keep track of my bank acocunt, the LA Times, the LA Dodgers, my stocks, get directions with GPS, and much more all from my ANCIENT Blackberry.

Personally I am willing to suffer and appear old with my ancient piece of hardware, but I am happy enough that I can do so without having to call anybody names.

Now take a deep breath and count to ten before I have to put you on timeout.
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The word Business..
Fletchguy Updated - 18th Aug 2010
@dwighthendricks
The word Business is realitive to what you do. Me I'm in the music Entertainment industry and a blackberry is like old stone tablet and chisel for my business. I need ability to download and listen to music, samples, receive hd photos take and send hd photos. I also need a fast phone that doesn't freeze and the blackberry can not do any of this. I also have a need to see video clips and ads with good quality BB can not do this. I also like to be able to upload new music to digital sale sources from no matter where I am and use my phone as a wi-fi hot spot to support meeting sessions where we all need internet access no matter where we are not to mention the boring stuff like blog posts. twitter promos and such (granted I hate facebook and twitter with a passion) ,but the blackberry just can not handle my business needs which is why I use the new android powered Evo 4G on a flat rate $50 boost plan on sprints 4G network which allows video conferencing to those in the industry who use these high powered smart phones. Now if your on a very limited business phone need just email or ims then a blackberry will do but in my business I need much more and demand a much better function all in one device...the iphone doesn't count as its limitations and poor AT&T national coverage immediately remove it from usefulness.
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
bb_apptix 18th Aug 2010
MoblieAdmin has it pretty much right. We can manage all users/devices from one console, and not have to deal with all the garbage, such as the recent iPhone ActiveSync debacle.

also...

the fact that Blackberries "do precisely what corporate IT needs them to, but they only do a little of what the people who have to live by their phones 24/7 want them to" is exactly the point, although a little strained.

Since your BB can phone, e-mail, IM, SMS, camera, video, music, voice notes, calendar, contacts, web browse, what else does the company you work for need you to do with your mobile handheld device?
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
ITOdeed 18th Aug 2010
Ha! The only problem with AT&T is the iPhone and all its baggage. To make a long story short, all smart phones except the BlackBerry are Media oriented. The BB is a business phone, and a good one.
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
striker67 18th Aug 2010
Well for business I have to say I like my BB 9700. I had an iphone and it just didn't do email/messaging the way I wanted. The spellcheck on the iphone embarrassed me more than once. Now as some have said here for certain industries such as the music industry I would definitely go with an Android or iphone because of the availability of apps for your specific industry, but it would be at a cost because of some of the functionality the BB provides.
@ Chris The only thing you said that I had an issue with is "Obviously, heavily regulated industries require serious security, but RIM has shown that it?s more than happy to hand over user data when potentially lucrative markets are in jeopardy. " All I can say is what would you expect them todo? Does apple or android have anything close to the security. Not from what I have seen. Lets not forget they are allowing the governments to access the data in unstable areas where terrorism is a real threat. No one likes itm but I would hardly call BB sellouts.
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
coopejx@... 18th Aug 2010
"...RIM has shown that it?s more than happy to hand over user data when potentially lucrative markets are in jeopardy"
Perhaps you were not following the news too closely, but RIM has only agreed to hand over their user data to some countries after long consultations. It is not accurate to call this willingly. Almost all of the other competing devices have always been wide open at the switch level, so there was never the need for these authorities to even ask for the user data from them.
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I wondered the exact opposite
gwalachmai 18th Aug 2010
I was given a droid to play with for a week, and wondered why anyone would want one if they could have a blackberry.

"I didn?t know people still bought those anymore" - I don't know where you're living, but here on planet earth you'll find they FAR outsell droids and iphones.
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Blackberry.
condelirios 18th Aug 2010
Umm.. You didn't know people bought them anymore? Are you asleep?

Blackberry is the top selling smartphone in the US. It continues to gain marketshare, even as iPhone and Android have come along.

What does a Droid provide that a Blackberry cant?

Answer: Nothing.

I have a Blackberry Tour 9630... It has perfect FULL integration into Exchange.. including tasks, contacts, email, calendaring, and notes. Never has any problems and if someone steals the Phone, it will be wiped in moments, I will have a new one by lunch and all my data back on it wirelessly before I finish Lunch.

It has lots and tons of apps too. I regularly use many, many apps on it... including ZDNET! .. I have Kindle for Blackberry, Poynt, Documents to go to edit all office docs... Tetris, Bejewelled, brickbreaker...

Oh and the killer app... Blackberry Messenger. How do you BBM with others on Android again? Full corporate endorsed IM with photos and unlimited text... NOTHING even comes close..

Oh BTW.. listening to Pandora all day, taking calls, emailing.. BBM, calendar... texting... checking facebook, and twitter... and the battery still has 3 bars of charge? Android DOESNT.
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Did you just pull a 'facebook' here?
SonofaSailor Updated - 18th Aug 2010
And forget that the same people you're talking about are probably reading this?

Now that you've complained on a pretty well known website about the company supplied equipment you're being "forced" to take...I wonder if you ever need support from the "corporate" IT dept, how quick they will be to get you taken care off?

If you're that bothered by it, you could have just not taken the job. Did they supply a company car? if they had, would you b1tch about the make and model?
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
lkm32 18th Aug 2010
Got a new phone for my birthday. It was the HTC HD2.
I was like:
"I'm getting a...Windows Phone?"
they said:
"Oh! We never knew we'll replace it right away"

the point is that each phone system has something it does well and blackberry has business down.

Windows Mobile is what NOT to do (but let's wait for 7)
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
capeleopard 19th Aug 2010
As many BB consumers know, the full OTA sync experience is only available to users with Exchange/BES, either through a corporate server or a hosted service.

For prosumers and SMBs, BES provisioning not only doubles hosting costs but often incurs a higher monthly fee from the carrier.

Devices that support ActiveSync, ie most smartphones apart from BB, provide all this functionality, albeit without the last ounce of security, at much reduced cost and complexity.

This gray and growing area between Enterprise and Consumer is a tempting market for iOS/Android/WM vendors, and ultimately poses a significant threat to RIM's business model.
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
keitha73 19th Aug 2010
Blackberry's can be used for a lot more than email and taking calls.... of course Apple wouldn't want you to beleive that.

Of course, what good is an iPhone if you don't charge it every day? My Blackberry gets 3+ days battery life with talking, email, sav-nat all getting used. I don't see what else the Blackberry needs to do.. I mean "if" I had any need for it I could even Facebook, Twitter, etc. etc...

What exactly is it that the Blackberry doesn't do? Or does it just lack the hype (which is normal when you've been at the top for so long).
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
putty.master 19th Aug 2010
One big advantage of the Blackberry/BES environment is centralized policy management. For example I can set a password policy and enforce it instantly accross all of my devices in the wild with a few clicks.
I would love it if an Android could be configured to run from a BES and retain the security features of the Blackberry environment. I think, given how far behind RIM has fallen in the world of smartphones, they should pursue this option as a means of staying relevant without having to compete in the handset market.
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RE: I'm getting a...BlackBerry?
Doctor Demento 19th Aug 2010
So to summarize.....Android is 'cool' and 'hip' and Blackberry isn't.....okay.....what about those of use old enough and mature enough to not really care about what is 'hip'?

What about people who want a phone that 'just works'? As a phone, not as a multimedia toy?

What about people who want a smartphone that they can use for their job?

What about people who don't really care about showing off their latest gadgets as a kind of status symbol?

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