LocutusEstBorg
Active Member
Now I tried my best to keep this analysis unbiased and fair (since I'm biased against general purpose CPUs that won't run custom applications):
My cousin works at a large hospital and he has a BlackBerry which he uses for e-mail. My friend's dad is an account and a gadget freak so a bought a BlackBerry after hearing a lot about it being a useful business tool since he gets e-mail from a lot of corporate clients. He said it was a useless piece of junk after all the PDAs he's used in the past. I've used their BlackBerries extensively to see what all the fuss was about and I wasn't impressed. In fact it lowered my opinion of what I thought of BlackBerry.
Price:
Ludicrously overpriced. The hardware specs cannot be compared to phones from Nokia or Sony Ericsson in the same price range. Camera sucks, etc. The cheaper BlackBerries look like a Treo from 2001. Most people won't be caught with something like that in their pocket.
The keyboard is amazing. Is is definitely the best keyboard I've ever seen on a mobile device. No doubt about that. However that still doesn't justify paying upwards of Rs.20,000 for a BB.
But we all know BlackBerry is all about the business features it offers so lets over look the hardware and pray that the features can justify the price (but they won't).
Conclusion: No way to justify ridiculous pricing. At least the iPhone is superficially "cool".
EDIT: I don't support the iPhone either so don't compare it with the iPhone. The iPhone is widely accepted as a luxury device and if people want to spend money on it, its cause they're rich. The BB is put forth as some kind of essential corporate device and hence it should be compared with other business oriented phones like the E63, E71 etc.
And I'm talking about how worthwhile it is buying them individually from a store, not how useful it is when you get it free from your company.
Push E-Mail:
There are only 2 ways to get real push e-mail on a BlackBerry:
1) You must use the you@carrier.blackberry.net e-mail address that you get when you pay for the BB data plan.
When the BB mail server receives a mail, it notifies your carrier which notifies you phone and you see the mail immediately.
2) You have a (usually corporate scale) Microsoft Exchange server or other supported mail server that has the BB extension installed. The BB extension detects when your mail server receives a mail and immediately notifies the BB server, which notifies the carries, which then reaches your phone.
Both of these require you to use a corporate or BB e-mail address so you can forget about getting your personal e-mail pushed in real-time.
To get (3rd party) personal e-mail "pushed" to your device you must go to their website and enter your e-mail addresses and their passwords. Their server polls your personal mail account every 15 minutes and then pushes it to your phone the same way as before. I don't need my passwords sitting on someone else's server, thank you.
Now lets look at push e-mail on other phones:
Any Symbian S60 phone natively supports IMAP mailboxes. Just enter your account details and your incoming mail server, say imap.gmail.com . Your phone connects to the IMAP server and stays connected via IMAP IDLE. Any time you receive a mail, the server can directly notify your phone without ANY delay.
With IMAP idle your mail stays perfect synchronized with the server, and anywhere else you access it from using IMAP. If you read a mail on your phone, its marked as read on the server. So when you open the GMail web interface anything you've read is marked as read. If you delete it one one device, it gets deleted everywhere (or archived when you delete from the IMAP Inbox).
Even if your mail server doesn't support IMAP (Hotmail), you can configure the device to poll the mail server every 15 minutes, effectively doing the same thing that the BB server does.
You can get true push e-mail on your personal AND corporate e-mail addresses. You don't have to give up your old address if you are only looking for push e-mail.
Both methods require active GPRS connections so battery consumption is even. Very few carriers support the WAP/SMS push notification.
Conclusion: The BlackBerry's push e-mail is redundant. It has multiple points of failure. They can steal your passwords. Its actually inferior to ordinary devices that don't even boast push e-mail support, from a technical point of view.
PIN-to-PIN Messaging:
BB users can message other BB users for "free" via their devices unique PIN number. The messages are sent via GPRS so your are still charged for bandwidth. Depending on your data plan, this might even work out costlier than sending an ordinary SMS since most plans have a 10KiB pulse and BB data plans charge ridiculous amounts per KiB/MiB (10 times more than ordinary GPRS with some carriers).
This is nothing but a glorified IM service such as Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, or Google Talk from a technological point of view.
Messaging on other phones:
Just install any IM client. There are hundreds of IM clients that connect to all the popular networks for Java phones, Symbian phones and almost every kind of device. You message ANY one not just other people who have BBs. You have to pay for the generic GPRS bandwidth anyway but it costs just a fraction of what a BB data plan's GPRS bandwidth costs.
Conclusion: A completely redundant feature that any cheap Java enabled phone can do. On top of that its a money making scam by the carriers since you are charged for bandwidth at BB data plan rates.
BlackBerry Internet Service:
This is one of their ridiculously overpriced data plans. Its technically nothing but an ordinary GPRS connection which allows the phone to communicate with their servers. They charge exorbitant amounts per KiB or MiB. Over here its around 20p for 1KiB pulse. Generic GPRS is only 5p for 10KiB pulse. The BB data plan is 40 times costlier for than an ordinary GPRS plan in Vodafone India.
Previously they tried to con us into believing that all data is "secure" and goes through the BB servers. Therefore only applications that natively supported the BIS could access the internet. Basically it meant that only the built-in applications like the BB browser and BB mail client could access the internet. If you installed a 3rd party Java application that had online support it wouldn't be able to connect. There is no technical reason for this limitation. The official BIS applications used nothing but standard TCP/IP connections to make outgoing connections to their servers. The BlackBerry OS was intentionally blocking all outgoing TCP/IP connections from other applications. They must have had plans of extorting software companies by charging a license fee to use the internet through their BIS gateway.
Once they realized that developers would call this BS, they immediately opened up TCP/IP access to Java applications in the newer firmware. Now BB users could use other browsers like Opera Mini instead of the lame excuse for a browse that comes with BBs.
BlackBerry Enterprise Service:
To access your corporate email pushed from a mail sever with the BlackBerry extension, you must have a "BES" plan instead of the BIS plan it seems. This costs even more than the BIS plan and there is no technical reason you need this BS since the whole thing is just a generic GPRS connection and a sham. A device should be able to connect to any server from the generic public gateway. The ONLY reason a carrier should have a separate BIS plan is if and only if they support the WAP/SMS/hidden message method of pushing e-mail notifications. Even then there is no reason you need a separate plan for this. The OMA EMN specification allows you to notify of push e-mail using an ordinary SMS through a GSM connection, so you phone can only connect via GPRS when it receives a notification.
Why should you pay for this BS when a Windows Mobile device can directly sync with a corporate Exchange server with an official Microsoft client and also sync your contacts and calendar and other stuff, through a generic GPRS connection?
Symbian S60 phones support the OMA EMN specification for push e-mail notifications so you don't need to have an active GPRS connection for them either, if the mail server supports OMA EMN notifications.
Software:
The BB only supports 3rd party Java applications. There are very few native 3rd party application like the GMail client. Since they have no software, hardware specs like CPU speed etc. are completely irrelevant.
Their "App World" store is full of overpriced junk. Like one of the devs said about the PSP and iPhone, "Having a taller pile of garbage isn't necessarily better".
Conclusion:
RIM are a bunch of crooks who make overpriced phones, which do less than other Symbian or Windows Mobile phones that cost half as much, and are in cahoots with the carriers to fleece customers of their money.
All because someone is too stupid to configure the mail client on their Symbian or Windows Mobile phone. A typical example of a critical failure but commercial success. Just like "Epic Movie" was a commercial success.
Image your company gave you all an E63 with all the above features configured. What possible reason could you have to support a BB then. It would have also cost your company half as much.
Spread the word. Teach people how to configure a mail client, since that's the primary reason they fall prey to greedy companies like RIM. I'm fuming with rage just writing about this daylight robbery.
My cousin works at a large hospital and he has a BlackBerry which he uses for e-mail. My friend's dad is an account and a gadget freak so a bought a BlackBerry after hearing a lot about it being a useful business tool since he gets e-mail from a lot of corporate clients. He said it was a useless piece of junk after all the PDAs he's used in the past. I've used their BlackBerries extensively to see what all the fuss was about and I wasn't impressed. In fact it lowered my opinion of what I thought of BlackBerry.
Price:
Ludicrously overpriced. The hardware specs cannot be compared to phones from Nokia or Sony Ericsson in the same price range. Camera sucks, etc. The cheaper BlackBerries look like a Treo from 2001. Most people won't be caught with something like that in their pocket.
The keyboard is amazing. Is is definitely the best keyboard I've ever seen on a mobile device. No doubt about that. However that still doesn't justify paying upwards of Rs.20,000 for a BB.
But we all know BlackBerry is all about the business features it offers so lets over look the hardware and pray that the features can justify the price (but they won't).
Conclusion: No way to justify ridiculous pricing. At least the iPhone is superficially "cool".
EDIT: I don't support the iPhone either so don't compare it with the iPhone. The iPhone is widely accepted as a luxury device and if people want to spend money on it, its cause they're rich. The BB is put forth as some kind of essential corporate device and hence it should be compared with other business oriented phones like the E63, E71 etc.
And I'm talking about how worthwhile it is buying them individually from a store, not how useful it is when you get it free from your company.
Push E-Mail:
There are only 2 ways to get real push e-mail on a BlackBerry:
1) You must use the you@carrier.blackberry.net e-mail address that you get when you pay for the BB data plan.
When the BB mail server receives a mail, it notifies your carrier which notifies you phone and you see the mail immediately.
2) You have a (usually corporate scale) Microsoft Exchange server or other supported mail server that has the BB extension installed. The BB extension detects when your mail server receives a mail and immediately notifies the BB server, which notifies the carries, which then reaches your phone.
Both of these require you to use a corporate or BB e-mail address so you can forget about getting your personal e-mail pushed in real-time.
To get (3rd party) personal e-mail "pushed" to your device you must go to their website and enter your e-mail addresses and their passwords. Their server polls your personal mail account every 15 minutes and then pushes it to your phone the same way as before. I don't need my passwords sitting on someone else's server, thank you.
Now lets look at push e-mail on other phones:
Any Symbian S60 phone natively supports IMAP mailboxes. Just enter your account details and your incoming mail server, say imap.gmail.com . Your phone connects to the IMAP server and stays connected via IMAP IDLE. Any time you receive a mail, the server can directly notify your phone without ANY delay.
With IMAP idle your mail stays perfect synchronized with the server, and anywhere else you access it from using IMAP. If you read a mail on your phone, its marked as read on the server. So when you open the GMail web interface anything you've read is marked as read. If you delete it one one device, it gets deleted everywhere (or archived when you delete from the IMAP Inbox).
Even if your mail server doesn't support IMAP (Hotmail), you can configure the device to poll the mail server every 15 minutes, effectively doing the same thing that the BB server does.
You can get true push e-mail on your personal AND corporate e-mail addresses. You don't have to give up your old address if you are only looking for push e-mail.
Both methods require active GPRS connections so battery consumption is even. Very few carriers support the WAP/SMS push notification.
Conclusion: The BlackBerry's push e-mail is redundant. It has multiple points of failure. They can steal your passwords. Its actually inferior to ordinary devices that don't even boast push e-mail support, from a technical point of view.
PIN-to-PIN Messaging:
BB users can message other BB users for "free" via their devices unique PIN number. The messages are sent via GPRS so your are still charged for bandwidth. Depending on your data plan, this might even work out costlier than sending an ordinary SMS since most plans have a 10KiB pulse and BB data plans charge ridiculous amounts per KiB/MiB (10 times more than ordinary GPRS with some carriers).
This is nothing but a glorified IM service such as Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, or Google Talk from a technological point of view.
Messaging on other phones:
Just install any IM client. There are hundreds of IM clients that connect to all the popular networks for Java phones, Symbian phones and almost every kind of device. You message ANY one not just other people who have BBs. You have to pay for the generic GPRS bandwidth anyway but it costs just a fraction of what a BB data plan's GPRS bandwidth costs.
Conclusion: A completely redundant feature that any cheap Java enabled phone can do. On top of that its a money making scam by the carriers since you are charged for bandwidth at BB data plan rates.
BlackBerry Internet Service:
This is one of their ridiculously overpriced data plans. Its technically nothing but an ordinary GPRS connection which allows the phone to communicate with their servers. They charge exorbitant amounts per KiB or MiB. Over here its around 20p for 1KiB pulse. Generic GPRS is only 5p for 10KiB pulse. The BB data plan is 40 times costlier for than an ordinary GPRS plan in Vodafone India.
Previously they tried to con us into believing that all data is "secure" and goes through the BB servers. Therefore only applications that natively supported the BIS could access the internet. Basically it meant that only the built-in applications like the BB browser and BB mail client could access the internet. If you installed a 3rd party Java application that had online support it wouldn't be able to connect. There is no technical reason for this limitation. The official BIS applications used nothing but standard TCP/IP connections to make outgoing connections to their servers. The BlackBerry OS was intentionally blocking all outgoing TCP/IP connections from other applications. They must have had plans of extorting software companies by charging a license fee to use the internet through their BIS gateway.
Once they realized that developers would call this BS, they immediately opened up TCP/IP access to Java applications in the newer firmware. Now BB users could use other browsers like Opera Mini instead of the lame excuse for a browse that comes with BBs.
BlackBerry Enterprise Service:
To access your corporate email pushed from a mail sever with the BlackBerry extension, you must have a "BES" plan instead of the BIS plan it seems. This costs even more than the BIS plan and there is no technical reason you need this BS since the whole thing is just a generic GPRS connection and a sham. A device should be able to connect to any server from the generic public gateway. The ONLY reason a carrier should have a separate BIS plan is if and only if they support the WAP/SMS/hidden message method of pushing e-mail notifications. Even then there is no reason you need a separate plan for this. The OMA EMN specification allows you to notify of push e-mail using an ordinary SMS through a GSM connection, so you phone can only connect via GPRS when it receives a notification.
Why should you pay for this BS when a Windows Mobile device can directly sync with a corporate Exchange server with an official Microsoft client and also sync your contacts and calendar and other stuff, through a generic GPRS connection?
Symbian S60 phones support the OMA EMN specification for push e-mail notifications so you don't need to have an active GPRS connection for them either, if the mail server supports OMA EMN notifications.
Software:
The BB only supports 3rd party Java applications. There are very few native 3rd party application like the GMail client. Since they have no software, hardware specs like CPU speed etc. are completely irrelevant.
Their "App World" store is full of overpriced junk. Like one of the devs said about the PSP and iPhone, "Having a taller pile of garbage isn't necessarily better".
Conclusion:
RIM are a bunch of crooks who make overpriced phones, which do less than other Symbian or Windows Mobile phones that cost half as much, and are in cahoots with the carriers to fleece customers of their money.
All because someone is too stupid to configure the mail client on their Symbian or Windows Mobile phone. A typical example of a critical failure but commercial success. Just like "Epic Movie" was a commercial success.
Image your company gave you all an E63 with all the above features configured. What possible reason could you have to support a BB then. It would have also cost your company half as much.
Spread the word. Teach people how to configure a mail client, since that's the primary reason they fall prey to greedy companies like RIM. I'm fuming with rage just writing about this daylight robbery.
