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I never had a Blackberry but everyone I know who did says it was the best phone they ever had.

qsi 6y ago
I loved my Blackberries, and hung on to the last one as long as possible. I think I had to give it up around 2012... but even within the Blackberries, there were differences. Some keyboards were better than other, or at least, suited me better. Having said that, I am not sure they could have withstood the app revolution without participating in. I do think they made major mistakes in their strategy at critical points, but simply focusing on their core business demographic might not have been enough. The get corporate IT on board, IIRC, you had to run a Blackberry Enterprise Server (?) for security and corporate connectedness. This was not cheap. That was becoming increasingly problematic as the iPhone and Android infrastructures caught up security-wise. In the end the cost to maintain the Blackberry servers was no longer justifiable as many people wanted the shiny new phones with all the apps.
- joshspankit 6y ago
  I agree with much of this, but consider this: If they had “weathered the storm” and kept on course while people were fascinated by the iPhone, by the time the fad faded a bit they would have had the best keyboard, the longest battery life, solid security, and corporations with unquestionable trust in the delivery of messages to employees. You’re right about the BES requirement but they could have easily gone SAAS-optional when the industry shifted to the cloud.
snowwrestler 6y ago
I carried a BlackBerry for work for years and was an early tester of the iPhone for my employer. They issued the iPhone 4 to a few volunteers to test out with our email system etc. I found it to be way better than the Blackberry. If they had forced me back to the BlackBerry I probably would have found a new job. And, a huge number of colleagues who saw me using it at work got excited and put in requests for their own iPhones. It was just so much easier and more pleasant to read on the iPhone.

qsi 6y ago

I loved my Blackberries, and hung on to the last one as long as possible. I think I had to give it up around 2012... but even within the Blackberries, there were differences. Some keyboards were better than other, or at least, suited me better. Having said that, I am not sure they could have withstood the app revolution without participating in. I do think they made major mistakes in their strategy at critical points, but simply focusing on their core business demographic might not have been enough. The get corporate IT on board, IIRC, you had to run a Blackberry Enterprise Server (?) for security and corporate connectedness. This was not cheap. That was becoming increasingly problematic as the iPhone and Android infrastructures caught up security-wise. In the end the cost to maintain the Blackberry servers was no longer justifiable as many people wanted the shiny new phones with all the apps.

joshspankit 6y ago
I agree with much of this, but consider this: If they had “weathered the storm” and kept on course while people were fascinated by the iPhone, by the time the fad faded a bit they would have had the best keyboard, the longest battery life, solid security, and corporations with unquestionable trust in the delivery of messages to employees. You’re right about the BES requirement but they could have easily gone SAAS-optional when the industry shifted to the cloud.

snowwrestler 6y ago

I carried a BlackBerry for work for years and was an early tester of the iPhone for my employer. They issued the iPhone 4 to a few volunteers to test out with our email system etc. I found it to be way better than the Blackberry. If they had forced me back to the BlackBerry I probably would have found a new job. And, a huge number of colleagues who saw me using it at work got excited and put in requests for their own iPhones. It was just so much easier and more pleasant to read on the iPhone.