we all know blackberry was a fad for us non business people types. Especially in London every college to university student had to have one. Why? One reason of course BBM (blackberry messenger) thats primarily why I bought one, I needed a new phone at the time and I was very picky. I had just said goodbye to my Sony Ericsson w810i which had died on me after going through hell and back. I wanted a slim black simple phone nothing complicated, as I sifted through the offerings from the entirety of the mobile phone world I was pointed to a blackberry Which in my defence was black. I had been convinced by friends that a blackberry phone was “amazing”. “You could do so much with it.” it’s a business phone so it will help organise your life!”. Turned out to be quite the opposite I had gotten a chunky blackberry curve, at first it took some time getting used to as the keypad was integrated within the qwerty keyboard so made dialling slightly confusing. As I played around with it my feelings towards the curve had changed, having a full qwerty keyboard paired with the BBM messenger really was an experience especially at a time when the must have accessory was a blackberry and the common phrase amongst the youth were “what’s your pin?”.
Having a blackberry at the time meant you were a part of an elite social network and were connected at all times. Whereas your peers would be left to logging Into Facebook when they got the chance at home in the library or even in-class. Groups really made things much more interesting to the point you could tell a person had a blackberry by the constant pinging sound coming from their pocket. This novelty wore off quick as the alerts from the group never stopped even at night!
After a month or two the problems started to surface. The complexity of the interface began to irritate, the blackberry world (AppStore) had been let Down as majority of the apps were overpriced, irrelevant or absolutely useless. A perfect example was that of an app that made an led flash continuously with multiple colours.
The worst encounters were when your blackberry froze yes froze! While you were compiling a plain and simple text message. When it would crash requiring a reboot which meant you had to update all your BB contacts. This wasn’t isolated instances I didn’t just receive a dodgy BB, friends colleagues peers passers by all had the same problems if not worse and yet more and more people joined the club because the ongoing trend was growing.
I really didn’t know why people didn’t speak out against the appalling hinderances having a blackberry created. Rather they promoted it, as faith was in their heart that one day it would be sorted.
Alas blackberry continued down the path that has lead them to lose Market share year after year releasing minor upgrades in terms of specs on their handsets. All inheriting the underlying problems that the early curves and bolds faced.
moneyandgadgetmatters 