Why did you purchase a BlackBerry?

[RichardG]

I am just curious to know why I see so many people with BlackBerry Hand Sets, everywhere I go I see people in restaurants using their blackberry hand sets either on twitter,facebook, IM or either social mediums and to top it up I go to any CNA,EDDGARS,Cellphone shop or Game and I see someone purchasing a blackberry.

Everyone stops me and asks me about the whole BlackBerry experience, as always have my BlackBerry exposed either on VIIGO,twitter,mybroadband,crackberry,etc

My reason on getting a BlackBerry and the honest truth, I use to always visit websites with my mobile, was spending roughly around R100+ decided this is ridiculous and decided to go blackberry way, I first started with the 8520 entry hand set paid cash, then moved to the 9700 later on, my experience has been wonderful with so many applications like : Weather, Twitter,Viigo, Goodyz, and a variety of other apps I use daily not forgetting email(stressful taken work home with me)

Thank you to the BIS experience for saving me a lot of money and making mobile experience different taken to the next level

 

[dotnerd]

I still have the Berry 8320 with GPS and all, the Vodafone red one... been a very precious toy for a long time untill I got a Android based phone the other day... OMW what an awesome thing!


The main drive for me to switch to something other than a berry was the lack of a decent handset WITHOUT GPS. They announced that the 9300 will not be coming to SA which leaves you with the 9700 if you want a top of the range phone, but you will be paying for the fact that is has a GPS mouse built in. And lets not forget that E-mail on a BlackBerry is absolute crap when it comes to enterprise use. I NEED to eb able to book meetings and view attachments on my phone and well, the Berry simply cant do that at all or a good as a proper smartphone.

 

[mizteeq]

I just bought mine because Kim Kardashian has one...

Okay, seriously though, I bought it for the social networking, and being able to receive emails on my phone. Also, having "unlimited" internet access was pretty appealing to me too.

 

[Malasius]

Blackberry is more than just buying a phone. Its about the solution it provides - free data, real push mail, BES server etc.. you cannot find a better solution around in my opinion

 

[marine1]

Bought one and didnt know what the hype was about, now:
1) never freezes like Windows mobile.
2) integration with everything is amazing, take a photo and it is so quick- gives you option to mms, e mail, facebook, etc, Windows and Nokia dont come close.
3) Camera great
4) free e mail and browsing
5) great Satnav
6) easy to type
7) again no delays, the phone just works

Only issue I have is when you take out bettery, to restart takes a long time

 

[BeVonk!]

Marine1, you can reboot by pressing alt+shift(one on the right)+del. Does the same as battery pull. Another trick: by pressing alt+NMLL you get the db reading instead of signal bars.

 

[cavedog]

The blackberry phones doesn't look that great. I just got my new HTC Desire. How does blackberry even compare yet its still expensive to have a good blackberry. Don't know why every 1 is going on like this over a blackberry..... Android is the future.....

I'm not here to spoil anything just don't understand why people want blackberry. Yes free internet but slow internet cause most blackberries are EDGE only and not to mention Vodacom's POOR EDGE coverage.

Just checked. You need about R369 per month to get a 3.2Mbps capable blackberry where for R339 you get the HTC Desire on the exact same package with endless fun i.t.o apps/games massive screen free 4gb sd card and 7.2Mbps capable internet speed.....

 

[oronte]

Well use Mtn then and nothing stops you from using full hsdpa speed on a Blackberry it just isn't free.

 

[ThunderChild]

Just checked. You need about R369 per month to get a 3.2Mbps capable blackberry where for R339 you get the HTC Desire on the exact same package with endless fun i.t.o apps/games massive screen free 4gb sd card and 7.2Mbps capable internet speed.....

Um, got the Storm 2 last week, came bundled with 16Gb micro sd card...

 

[undesign]

Got my blackberry this week - and I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying it! I was looking for a break from Nokia - nothing specific, just wanted to try something different and the BB is completely refreshing. 3G 99% of the time, and the interface and functionality is just great. The ability to customise vs. previous phones I've owned is astonishing. For the first time it truly feels like having my office in my pocket - the messaging/mailing makes me want to use my home PC & netbook less. Battery life is about two days whilst pretty much constantly playing with the phone.

 

[BeVonk!]

Just checked. You need about R369 per month to get a 3.2Mbps capable blackberry where for R339 you get the HTC Desire on the exact same package with endless fun i.t.o apps/games massive screen free 4gb sd card and 7.2Mbps capable internet speed.....

For R369 I get all the data I need at no extra cost. I have an Apple iPod Touch that can also do all the apps/games endless fun thing your Desire can do ... but the amount of data I use is HUGE. I have 73 apps running on my Touch requiring frequent updates that is in many cases tens of megabytes each. I did an update two days ago that ended up at 300MB after about nine apps required updates. Then Im not talking about the amount of data many of the apps draws when active. Data costs are coming down for sure but to keep an iPhone or Desire running at full cylinders one will pay big time for data. The BB owner pays his R369 every month, an no more.

For me the keyboard on my Bold makes text communication a breeze. I handle all my e-mail (several accounts) on my BB without any difficulty. I extensively use BB messanger to stay in touch with my staff and others ... works like a dream.

BB just does BUSINESS best.

 

[BeVonk!]

Android is the future

... and don't write BlackBerry's future off just yet. BlackBerry will sort their apps store out and then things will already look a lot better. Android's future, despite denials, look fragmented, and still requires a lot of fiddling to show its true power (and most people don't want to go there). Comments in the Android sections will confirm this. That whole procedure to get the battery recalibrated on the Desire says enough.

 

[Waaib]

... And lets not forget that E-mail on a BlackBerry is absolute crap when it comes to enterprise use. I NEED to eb able to book meetings and view attachments on my phone and well, the Berry simply cant do that at all or a good as a proper smartphone....

I can't say I agree with this. My experience is exactly the opposite. Email and booking meetings etc on the device works great.

I got mine primarily because of the unlimited data package.

 

[oronte]

I've never had problems viewing attachments on my Berry.
I got it because of the free internet (which I've truly made maximum use of) and the qwerty keyboard which on the Bold series is just the best ever made.