Why do people love Blackberries?

[nehunte]

Blackberries are dirt simple compared to some. Took me very little time to figure it out.

No offense kdarling, but that doesn't mean jack for most people. You've been dealing with this crap for longer than half the people on this forum have been alive. You probably dream of menus stacked upon submenus at night. From a sales perspective, from my very non-scientific small sector of this country, people seem to understand iPhones a lot easier than they do Blackberries (please don't yell at me, I know I don't speak for everybody!). However, in Blackberry's defense, nobody seems to understand WM.

 

[samcraig]

The simple and most logical answer is that there are different phones and features which appeal to different people. People love their iPhones. People love their Blackberries. People love there XXXXX

That's what makes it a horserace. Different strokes for different folks.

What's easy for some is hard for others. What's hard for others is easy for some. What's ugly to one is not ugly to another.

You can rave or rant as much as you want about different os's, design, etc - but at the end of the day - it's user preference. Period.

 

[Super_Saxy]

FWIW, my new Dell Mini 9 (I got it when they brought it back for a 5 day sale back in September) which is now running Leopard made the need for my iPhone useless. I now have the internet browsing capability of a laptop in my very small netbook, and the superior texting/email/phone functions of my new Blackberry Bold. For me, its the best of both worlds. Not to mention, I sold my iPhone for more then I paid for the Bold

Just my 2 cents

 

[nateo200]

No offense kdarling, but that doesn't mean jack for most people. You've been dealing with this crap for longer than half the people on this forum have been alive. You probably dream of menus stacked upon submenus at night. From a sales perspective, from my very non-scientific small sector of this country, people seem to understand iPhones a lot easier than they do Blackberries (please don't yell at me, I know I don't speak for everybody!). However, in Blackberry's defense, nobody seems to understand WM.

Yeah I'm sure kdarling can pretty much pick up any electronic device and guess correctly where exactly the settings He is looking for are but none the less blackberry's are really easy to use. I mean guys if we said blackberry's are confusing until you get the hang of it you could apply that to anythig....my car is confusing so I won't attempt to figure it out and just bitch and moan about it. Really how hard is to figure out where things are?! Trying to enable wifi....hmmmmm try settings/network settings not that hard don't tell me consumers are THAT stupid now....

 

[mgamber]

Well the OS you see on the Tour is going to be going out to the Curve 8900 and the bold soon with 5.0.

Blackberry and the iPhone are 2 very different phones. Blackberry is by far a better email/Texting phone.

Mix it with a custom theme you can get a pretty good set up. I have a curve 8900. yes there is a light learning curve to the blackberry but once you get over it I think it is by far a very great phone.

As a phone/Email/ Texting it beat the crap out of the iPhone. The iPhone is by far a better internet browsing and multimedia.

That pretty much hits it right on the head. I've also found the Blackberry to be much more rugged than the iPhone but almost any phone handles abuse better than the iPhone. Blackberry certainly has something going for it....walk around Manhattan and that's almost all you see!

 

[anfield11]

Simple to use? Not really. The first time I used a Blackberry it took me quite a while to figure out some things. Some features are so hidden behind menus and submenus that it can take a while for a first time user to find them.

Nightmare is a better description. I've had a Blackberry 5 years ago and now have an iPhone, which is vastly superior. I'm not a genius tech wise [why should you need to be to run a frickin' phone] but reasonably good at them. My friend who is a girl [too old to say girlfriend anymore] recently needed a new phone and wanted small and flip, so we got her the Blackberry Fip so she could email. The UI is the same as what I had 5 years ago....i.e.....crap. It's even difficult to figure out how to change the alerts/vibrate for different uses phone/email etc. It might be secure, but it's poor. And I am Canadian and live close to where they are made, so would like RIM to succeed. I have shares in both Companies, but it's RIM I'm thinking of dumping.

 

[anfield11]

Yeah I'm sure kdarling can pretty much pick up any electronic device and guess correctly where exactly the settings He is looking for are but none the less blackberry's are really easy to use. I mean guys if we said blackberry's are confusing until you get the hang of it you could apply that to anythig....my car is confusing so I won't attempt to figure it out and just bitch and moan about it. Really how hard is to figure out where things are?! Trying to enable wifi....hmmmmm try settings/network settings not that hard don't tell me consumers are THAT stupid now....

North American I'm guessing?

 

[hdsalinas]

Well I am not worry about which one is easier to use. I am sure each would have its learning curve (perhaps the iphone seems easier to us because we are used to the apple way of doing things).

To me aesthetics is everything. It is one of the reasons I switched to MacOS. The OS is elegant and uncluttered, while windows, well, is a different story.

I love simplicity, but it has to be well designed. The BB OS to me doesn't seem simple, it only seems plain.

 

[kate-willbury]

Nightmare is a better description. I've had a Blackberry 5 years ago and now have an iPhone, which is vastly superior. I'm not a genius tech wise [why should you need to be to run a frickin' phone] but reasonably good at them. My friend who is a girl [too old to say girlfriend anymore] recently needed a new phone and wanted small and flip, so we got her the Blackberry Fip so she could email. The UI is the same as what I had 5 years ago....i.e.....crap. It's even difficult to figure out how to change the alerts/vibrate for different uses phone/email etc. It might be secure, but it's poor. And I am Canadian and live close to where they are made, so would like RIM to succeed. I have shares in both Companies, but it's RIM I'm thinking of dumping.

lol are you kidding me? its 'difficult' to change alerts etc on the blackberry? at least you can actually DO IT on the blackberry whereas on the iphone you can't even change text sounds for different users LOL.

i think people use this ridiculous 'ease of use' argument with the iphone as a scapegoat because theres really nothing else to say about it. are you people saying that when you pick up a blackberry or any other phone you just get so confused and have no idea what to do??? christ do you all have to be babied or something?

 

[Sean006]

To be honest with you there are a few things i miss about my BB curve...

set sleep mode I had it shut off at 1am and come back on at 8am
the loud speaker phone
the loudness of the phone itself
being able to use BBM and other apps in the background
BATTERY life (would only charge every 2 days)

would i go back NO WAY !!!

I was one of those people that would change their cell phone every time something came out...well the iphone took care of the adiction...bought it sept 2008 and still have it...

Love it !

 

[Adam0306]

I have the Curve 8330 and actually like it. Yes you do have to get used to the different OS just like every new phone you get. The only reason I did not get the iPhone is because like you the service offered here(AT&T) SUCKS! It is a good phone but it just isn't an iPhone. Plus they just came out with Desktop Manager for Mac.

 

[kate-willbury]

the odd thing is while the majority of my female friends like macs, they ALL absolutely hate the iphone and love blackberries only?

 

[Le Big Mac]

I think, in general, Blackberries are for folks who need a reliable, highly secure smart-phone that allows a very high level of productivity on the go. IMO, this doesn't apply to the Storm, but it does apply to the Tour; both of which I owned. That said, outside of an exchange server my BB's usefulness dropped greatly.

So if you think the UI looks boring, multi-tasking isn't important (sans J/B iPhone), and you're not turned on by the BES/BIS functionality, you're probably better off looking for another phone.

EDIT: I'm not saying that folks who got the iPhone aren't looking for a secure, productive, etc phone, but the fact that many businesses do not find the iPhone to be secure enough would indicate to me that these corporate individuals wouldn't even be able to consider the iPhone for business use in the first place.

The main thing BB has going for it is support for secure corporate networks. That gives it a huge advantage for reasons pretty unrelated to the UI and so forth.

I use both iPhone and BB (for work). iPhone wins hands down for pretty much everything with the possible exception of email. I think the keyboard/touchscreen is a personal thing, and I see merits to both. For me, my thumbs get tired pretty quickly, but I'd say the tactile aspect of the keys is marginally better. But pretty much everything else is worse. If I could get exchange support through my employer for iPhone, I would.

 

[daneoni]

I personally have found the UI to be too bland and linear. Definitely too much scrolling.

BB is the best messaging phone out there, is always connected so you don't miss anything, reliable and has great battery life. Also there are tons of deals on it from carriers so to say you can get one easily would be an understatement. Consequently, a lot of people have one so its even become a big social networking tool right there since you can exchange the infamous BB pin

Contemporary society is all about staying connected and shooting off that quick message, very few people talk on the phone nowadays. BB affords that culture.

 

[milerich]

Worse, it has hidden actions with no menus to help out, such as having to use two fingers to scroll divs and text areas in Safari. Most people just give up.

YOU rock!!

I have a Mobile Admin tool for a website I maintain, and I used to navigate these text areas by using the magnifier feature, which scrolls down VERY SLOWLY, especially when you have alot of text to get to the bottom of.

I can do this so much faster now with the two-finger technique, just tested it out!

 

[Kuddles]

A Blackberry Tour and An Ipod Touch wouldn't let you down. Best of both worlds.

 

[Super_Saxy]

I agree with everyone above here. I'm finding more and more each day, some little feature that my BB has that make me not miss my iPhone. Sure the internet browsing isn't as good, but personally, I really think everything else about the BB makes up for it. But again, to each his/her own.

BTW +1 for the ruggedness of Blackberry's. One of the primary reasons that made me switch was how delicate my iPhone 3G was. I am very OCD about my electronic devices, and even taking pristine care of my iPhone, I still got dust under the screen, and the bezel was scratched to all hell. Frankly, I just didn't want to deal with worrying about my phone anymore. With the BB, one hundred times less effort and it still has not a mark on it.

 

[milani]

It's a very utilitarian device; great for just getting things done. I assume that would be why people love them.

 

[str1f3]

BTW +1 for the ruggedness of Blackberry's. One of the primary reasons that made me switch was how delicate my iPhone 3G was. I am very OCD about my electronic devices, and even taking pristine care of my iPhone, I still got dust under the screen, and the bezel was scratched to all hell. Frankly, I just didn't want to deal with worrying about my phone anymore. With the BB, one hundred times less effort and it still has not a mark on it.

Really? I've heard from numerous people and websites that BB have lousy build quality.

 

[Mischka07]

Really? I've heard from numerous people and websites that BB have lousy build quality.

I wouldn't call them rugged, the old Nextel Motorola clamshells were rugged, but I certainly didn't have to worry about cracks in the housing or the screen launching itself into the air (ala Pre).

 

[QCassidy352]

Blackberry is by far a better email/Texting phone.

This is something I see repeated over and over to the point where people just accept it as true. But why is bb better at email or text?

It does corporate email well, but it's severely limited in email functionality in other ways, such as the way it displays html, the inability to select multiple messages unless they're sequential, and the fact that when you file messages you then have to back out to get back to the inbox (just the ones that come most readily to mind). iphone email has its weaknesses too, but this is far from a clear-cut victory for the blackberry.

And if you're talking about physical vs. virtual keyboards, that debate has been had, endlessly. Some people like both, some people are faster and more accurate with one, and some people are faster and more accurate with the other (fwiw, I'm faster and more accurate with the iphone keyboard than my curve's keyboard, but I accept that some people just can't get used to the virtual keys).

FWIW, my new Dell Mini 9 (I got it when they brought it back for a 5 day sale back in September) which is now running Leopard made the need for my iPhone useless. I now have the internet browsing capability of a laptop in my very small netbook, and the superior texting/email/phone functions of my new Blackberry Bold. For me, its the best of both worlds. Not to mention, I sold my iPhone for more then I paid for the Bold

Right, because carrying a netbook everywhere is just as easy and practical as carrying an iphone.

 

[Mitch1984]

Them Blackberry's don't seem to be reliable based on what I know.
There's a good few people on facebook who are always getting replacements and dishing new bb pins.

Using the iPhone keyboard is all about trusting it's correct feature. You don't really need to be really that precise at all with it.

 

[rkdiddy]

As a former iPhone user and now a Blackberry user - I can really see the charm of both the devices. Someone mentioned that the BB UI isn't as intuitive as Apple. I would agree to a new user just picking up the device, because I feel the BB has a learning curve. But, once you do learn RIMs newer devices are intuitive.

I think it boils down to what you primarily need the device for.

My thoughts:

iPhone > BB - web, music, pics, video and apps

BB > iPhone - phone, email/text and corporate connectivity (Outlook - tasks & calendar) w/ BB server

Before when my job was a Marketing Director a BB was perfect for me, because I was either on the phone or sending/receiving an email. Now that I oversee the Social Media I'm seriously considering going back to an iPhone.

My $.02

Cheers~

 

[swy05]

You can't compare the blackberry and iphone. 2 different phones for 2 different audiences.

The blackberry is simply for business users. The email capabilities of a blackberry are simply unmatched by any other type of phone. My iphone's email capabilities are piss poor compared to my blackberry. Even when I had an older blackberry running on Edge network the email system in general was alot more reliable then my iphone's email running on 3G. Depending on what type of business line you're in, you cannot afford to have a mediocre email system. Also, another + for the way blackberries handle documents (excel sheets, etc.)

The iphone on the other hand, trumps the blackberries in every other way possible. Music, multimedia, web-browsing, etc.

So it really boils down to what you need your phone for.

One thing that irks me lately is the way blackberries have become the new Sidekick/Nextel.

 

[rkdiddy]

It's a very utilitarian device; great for just getting things done. I assume that would be why people love them.

I had to laugh. That reminds me of a quote from Seinfeld.

"The female body is a work of art. The male body is utilitarian. It's for gettin' around, like a jeep."

I guess the same could be said about the iPhone and BB.