Blackberry, kind of like iPod

We have been using a Blackberry 7730 for a multi-location data services project recently. More on that project in due course; some thoughts on the device in the meantime.

What's good:

• The UI will be familiar to anyone who's used a scroller wheel/button, and there's a useful Cancel button just beneath it. The UI is fast and very intuitive (much more so than Nokia's Series 60 - the larger keyboard obviously helps, but the whole experience does feel fundamentally better designed) - perhaps this is why corporate users often feel as strongly about their Blackberrys as consumers do about their iPods? And note that these devices first enter corporates as toys for the execs, but rapidly become essential to these users ("out of my cold, dead hands..."), who will later be more likely to support projects that propose to use them for communications/IT/support/logistics/reporting/whatever solutions.
• It stacks all of your in- and out-bound voice, text and email messages in one date-separated list which is quite neat
• Email to/from the device is pretty good - it often retrieves mail faster than your desktop client. It saves emails (or data, generally) for sending later if you don't have a connection, but timestamps them as if they'd been sent when you wanted. This smart asynchronicity makes the device really useful for projects that both require data collection in the field and have a risk that the point of collection may not have great coverage.
• The email-and-voice means that you have a reason to have one master address book at last.
• The 240x240/65k-colour screen is extremely good, and protected behind tough glass(?)
• Other: the small magnet that switches of the screen if you put it in its holster: this helps give it huge battery life. You can switch off the radio to use it on the plane. The 7730 is tri-band, 7750 is dual-band.

What's bad:

• Phone is only good enough: your ear needs to be positioned just so, otherwise you can't hear it. Similarly, the keyboard is slightly too small for these fingers. And some users will ask where the stylus is (there isn't one: you type).
• It needs an Exchange or Notes server (yuck) to make the email bit work, which tends to limit it to corporate users. Support for IMAP coming next year perhaps.
• The battery life is so long that you'll forget to charge it.
• Suspect the platform is pretty closed compared to other mobile platforms. And it's definitely quite hard to develop for.

You need: a standard GPRS package to make it work.

Update: the Blackberry name considered accessible and friendly, compact and efficient, and fun in this article on sound symbolism and branding:

Semantically, for instance, the name "BlackBerry" suggests accessibility; "berry" also connotes smallness compared with other hand-helds. But phonologically, according to Lexicon's research, respondents rate the b sound as most strongly suggesting relaxation. In other words, the two b's say that using this hand-held won't require a 200-page manual. The short vowels in the first two syllables lend crispness: pushing a few buttons will quickly accomplish your goal. The alliteration conveys light-heartedness, much as Kit Kat does. The final y, says Dr. Whissell, who has no connection to any naming company, "is very pleasant and friendly, which is why you often find it in nicknames."

Comments

[Russ]

Cool - were you able to create this post from the Blackberry ? Anyone out there is also cordially invited to visit the new look www.russcoff.typepad.com

[matt]

specific blackberry question alert! so could i check my pop3 email account which is hosted by my isp on a blackberry? or does it have to be an exchange/notes server??

[Rodcorp]

hello Russ,
I didn't write it from the Blackberry itself, but no doubt you could because Typepad and most blogging tools will probably let you update via email. Or you could try browsing to the Typepad website with the Blackberry browser. PS: those eager to get straight along to Russcoff's parking ticket polemics will get better mileage out of this address: http://russcoff.typepad.com

hello Matt,
Believe you can't get pop3 or Imap email on a Blackberry yet - which is a bit annoying isn't it? Our understanding is that it currently has to connect to an exchange or notes server. Perhaps this will change in future. Which would be good because they're quite moreish!

[Will Macdonald]

I know T-Mobile do a 'consumer' package for the Blackberry. Round about £13/month. From what I could gather, T-Mobile would log into to your POP3 account, and then push email to your blackberry.

I think o2 offered a similar package.