Thursday 14 August 2008

BlackBerry – why it is getting a large following

I just got my new Nokia E71. Shiny nice phone and looks a lot like a RIM BlackBerry. In previous Nokia business phones you could download “BlackBerry Connect” and use the Symbian phone with BlackBerry Servers. But now it seems – the latest Nokia E66 and E71 will not get the BlackBerry Connect software. I do understand RIM if they don’t want Nokia to take part of their handset market, and it is a sensible business decision.

But why are so many attracted to BlackBerry? Well when you have a BlackBerry Data Plan, you can get “unlimited roaming data” packages. So if I’m traveling a lot – then I don’t pay exorbitant roaming charges. In the UAE you can get GPRS unlimited roaming data with Blackberry for about DHS 280 pr. month ($75). And for a business owner that is a very vise decision if your employees travel a lot.

So now where RIM is shutting Nokia out of the BlackBerry network – it must be time for Microsoft, Nokia or others with PushMail clients to start building roaming relationships with mobile providers so you can get same prices using Exchange or Nokia Mobile Mail – as you can with RIM BlackBerry.

If that does not happen, even more people will join the RIM BlackBerry Service –and now as their only “new phone” option will be a RIM handset. RIM sales will quite probably rise. And I would expect with BlackBerry Bold – the first 3G handset – that you will get unlimited worldwide 3G bundles very soon even in the UAE.

So my E71 will never get BlackBerry Connect - and that will mean a lot less potential clients for the close to perfect phone, who dont want an ugly chunky RIM handset.

Come on – Nokia, SonyEricsson, Microsoft and the rest of you. Look at RIMs network model – and make one of your own before we have too many ugly RIM handsets in the wild

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

nothing to do with rim, they just license code to palm nokia htc etc. Nokia have pulled out of the licensing deal but rim is still supporting Connect on other devices like the diamond.

Kaz said...

If that is true - then it must be Nokias worst descision in a long time. Do they think they can move users to Nokia Mail?

Anonymous said...

...or blackberry is hitting their intellisync business hard and they want to put a stop to it? r u going to Gitex this year?

Kaz said...

of course im going to gitex :-)

hanum said...

BlackBerry Connect on my mobile (Sony Ericsson G900) couldn't run :(