I think people use Blackberry phones because it makes them feel/look smart .. that's just my guess, kinda the same reason people wear non prescription reading glasses...
I have a BB9630 and it will probably be my last unless sprint gets any of the touchscreen versions
I think it's just the fact that it's a "blackberry" makes them look important but the value a blackberry once held is shooting downward fast unless they find a way to keep up with ios and android..i will say for business people like myself they make good back-up phones...my iphone does everything and more a BB does
Yes, but with unlimited texting plans at decent prices now and threaded text messaging on almost every phone, I don't understand the appeal of BBM. You're limited to only other BB users and I wouldn't buy a phone based off of one program.
@Shadow08 As a teenager myself, I can tell you. They are the new sidekick. They have good keyboards and they have good messaging capabilities. (Although, they are quickly losing favor, because of trackball issues).
@Shadow08 Totally agree, but people seem to be stuck in the mind-set of 3/4 years ago when you didn't have the unlimited threaded SMS like you do now. It's amazing how people can get stuck in their ways.
@Shadow08 my thoughts exactly. i'm in college and so many of friends have them but they dont do anything with it besides make calls and BBM. no one uses the apps (except for ubertwitter) because they're crappy and expensive and the browser sucks so whats the point? get an android phone or an iPhone. BBM is seriously not that great.
1) BBM - The BBM system is front and center on the phone, is a pretty good messenger out of the box (you have to configure Meebo on iPhone and not all teens use Google Talk) and a lot of teens have friends on BBM because...
2) They are cheap, so a bunch of teens / young adults. They are available on prepaid plans, given away free by many carriers, can be low cost as people can use BBM instead of text, etc.
3) Many of these teens have iPod nanos/touches for multimedia (and one reason that I doubt iPod touch ever gets a regular camera, creates more competition for iPhones for this demographic)
Blackberry seems to be the phone of choice of 20 something women here in NYC that don't need multimedia or tech bell and whistles too. Frequent text, e-mail, BBM, and voice seems to be what is demanded by these users, along with the easy to use keyboard.
Blackberry has the opportunity to keep many of these users from leaving if they improve web browsing and other features while keeping the strength of the form factor, BBM, etc. What could eventually doom Blackberry is 1) People replacing their cameras entirely with camera phones and using them to upload to facebook, twitter, etc (BB cams lag) 2) Growth of video chat like Facetime or other services 3) Android sliders / Portrait QWERTY Androids gaining traction 4) iPhone on Verizon taking away a chunk of their Blackberry biz
@Shadow08 Their QWERTY is superior to all others, they have BBM, which teenagers love, and their social networking and messaging apps are pretty stellar, especially Facebook, AIM, YIM and Twitter. The size and the form factor doesn't hurt either, really. I remember going from the Curve to the Tour and hating how big and heavy the Tour felt, and really missed the Curve. I can't believe I'm so happy with an EVO less than a year later...
@cboler20 Your statement may be true if you only use the Blackberry as a music player. iOS cannot remote wipe from a BES and the security measures for corporate users are complete afterthoughts. Companies who are security sensitive or require IT policies for different employee ranks cannot use android, iOS, Palm or Winmo. Once one of these companies invest and deploy a service similar to the Blackberry enterprise server, then they will be significant competition in the corporate scene.
This comes form a telecom admin (Blackberry support) for a security sensitive airline.
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I really don't understand why so many teens and young adults want Blackberry phones for non-business use. What's the incentive besides BBM?
@Shadow08
BBM makes the phone
@Shadow08 You sort of answered your own question there...
@Shadow08
I think people use Blackberry phones because it makes them feel/look smart .. that's just my guess, kinda the same reason people wear non prescription reading glasses...
I have a BB9630 and it will probably be my last unless sprint gets any of the touchscreen versions
@Shadow08
I think it's just the fact that it's a "blackberry" makes them look important but the value a blackberry once held is shooting downward fast unless they find a way to keep up with ios and android..i will say for business people like myself they make good back-up phones...my iphone does everything and more a BB does
@d0mth0ma5 @aliensix
Yes, but with unlimited texting plans at decent prices now and threaded text messaging on almost every phone, I don't understand the appeal of BBM. You're limited to only other BB users and I wouldn't buy a phone based off of one program.
@Shadow08
As a teenager myself, I can tell you. They are the new sidekick. They have good keyboards and they have good messaging capabilities.
(Although, they are quickly losing favor, because of trackball issues).
@Shadow08 Totally agree, but people seem to be stuck in the mind-set of 3/4 years ago when you didn't have the unlimited threaded SMS like you do now. It's amazing how people can get stuck in their ways.
@Shadow08 my thoughts exactly. i'm in college and so many of friends have them but they dont do anything with it besides make calls and BBM. no one uses the apps (except for ubertwitter) because they're crappy and expensive and the browser sucks so whats the point? get an android phone or an iPhone. BBM is seriously not that great.
@Shadow08
Two words. Blackberry Messenger
Not every teen has unlimited text plans, heck where i live everyone has pre-paid.
@iName
BBM is seriously great. That's why RIM destroy both Apple and Android in the teen market.
@MarkAnderson
Ovi contacts is similar, just not as widespread. But BBM is the life-blood of BB's
@Shadow08
1) BBM - The BBM system is front and center on the phone, is a pretty good messenger out of the box (you have to configure Meebo on iPhone and not all teens use Google Talk) and a lot of teens have friends on BBM because...
2) They are cheap, so a bunch of teens / young adults. They are available on prepaid plans, given away free by many carriers, can be low cost as people can use BBM instead of text, etc.
3) Many of these teens have iPod nanos/touches for multimedia (and one reason that I doubt iPod touch ever gets a regular camera, creates more competition for iPhones for this demographic)
Blackberry seems to be the phone of choice of 20 something women here in NYC that don't need multimedia or tech bell and whistles too. Frequent text, e-mail, BBM, and voice seems to be what is demanded by these users, along with the easy to use keyboard.
Blackberry has the opportunity to keep many of these users from leaving if they improve web browsing and other features while keeping the strength of the form factor, BBM, etc. What could eventually doom Blackberry is
1) People replacing their cameras entirely with camera phones and using them to upload to facebook, twitter, etc (BB cams lag)
2) Growth of video chat like Facetime or other services
3) Android sliders / Portrait QWERTY Androids gaining traction
4) iPhone on Verizon taking away a chunk of their Blackberry biz
@Shadow08
Personally outside of buisness use id hate for someone to know when ive read their message etc lol....
@Shadow08
Their QWERTY is superior to all others, they have BBM, which teenagers love, and their social networking and messaging apps are pretty stellar, especially Facebook, AIM, YIM and Twitter.
The size and the form factor doesn't hurt either, really. I remember going from the Curve to the Tour and hating how big and heavy the Tour felt, and really missed the Curve. I can't believe I'm so happy with an EVO less than a year later...
@Shadow08 Well Blackberry Messen- OH besides BBM? Um....you got me there lol.
@cboler20 Your statement may be true if you only use the Blackberry as a music player. iOS cannot remote wipe from a BES and the security measures for corporate users are complete afterthoughts. Companies who are security sensitive or require IT policies for different employee ranks cannot use android, iOS, Palm or Winmo. Once one of these companies invest and deploy a service similar to the Blackberry enterprise server, then they will be significant competition in the corporate scene.
This comes form a telecom admin (Blackberry support) for a security sensitive airline.