Are Verizon BlackBerry users switching to the Motorola Q?

by Robb Dunewood on September 20, 2006 · 10 comments

 
I work for a company where almost everyone carries some type of mobile smart device with them. The vast majority carry a BlackBerry and we are on a corporate Verizon plan. I would say that over the passed few months, a lot of my coworkers have switched from their BlackBerry 7250 or BlackBerry 7130e devices to the Motorola Q. Is there a trend starting?

Now, I should point out, I don’t work for a small company and I am not talking about just a few people here and there that have dropped their BlackBerrys for the Motorola Q. I have seen dozens of folks that have carried BlackBerry devices for years make the switch, most of whom admit that the Q is not as reliable as the BlackBerry, however, they have no intentions of coming back and almost all say that the Q isn’t that bad.

What I have been hearing is that the Motorola Q reboots every know and then, but, other than that it is a pretty sleek device. The question that I asked almost everyone that I know who has switched to the Q from a BlackBerry was “Why did you switch?”, and as though everyone who had a Q on their hip had been subliminally programed to say the exact same thing, the answers came down to two responses, at almost the same clip:

  1. I wanted a cameraphone that I could get my email on.
  2. I wanted a new device and I don’t like keyboard with two letters on one button (SureType)

I should note that about a third of these folks gave both responses.

The second answer tells me that a lot of my coworkers wouldn’t have switched if the Blackberry 8703e had been available around the same time that the Q hit the street, however, having a camera phone was important to the majority of them.

By the By…
The push based email on the Q is not bad at all. You can send and recieve email just like on a BlackBerry and you are able to pull down the GAL (Global Address Book) which had been my major reason for not using Windows Mobile in the passed.

Motorola Q, Windows Mobile 5.0, Verizon

Opinion

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  • thought

    I think one problem that RIM has in the US is that while GSM penetration is far greater than CDMA worldwide, in the important US market it’s about evenly divided.

    So their decision to come out with GSM devices first is a smart one globally, but in the critical US market doesn’t always play out to such a great advantage.

    This is esp. true when considering the excellent coverage reputation that Verizon, a CDMA carrier enjoys. I know many companies that will only go with Verizon due to their superior network reliability and coverage in the US. The same goes with many government agencies.
    It is a big disadvantage not to have your most advanced hardware on Verizon in the US. Verizon enjoys that good of a reputation.

    So RIM lagging behind in releasing their latest and greatest for CDMA does have some consequences in the US.

  • Exchange Admin

    As a BES and Exchange Admin at my company that uses Verizon I can understand why many BlackBerry users may have switched. The 7250 was old as dirt and it took forever for the 8703 to come out.

    I didn’t really want to have to support Windows Mobile 5 because I had heard all the stories about how unstable the OS is. When My CTO bought a Q on his own and said make it work, I really didn’t have a choice.

    If I am honest, Windows Mobile 5 on Exchange is easier to support than BES becasue it is just built into Exchange. You don’t get all the profile stuff that you can do on BES be we never use that stuff anyway.

    The Q is not as stable as the BlackBerry… I will give you that. But it is not nearly as bad as some of the BlackBerry forums make it out to be. I have just gotten into the habit of resetting it at night when I charge it up and I can usually make it through the day without a crash unless I intall some piece of crap software.

    I still have my 7250 hooked up to the BES but I find myself using the Q more. I actually swapped my phone number from my 7250 to my Q so that I could take calls on the Q.

    I just ordered a 8703e that hopefully will show up by the end of the week. Once I start playing with it, I will tell you if I like it more than the Q.

  • Rob

    Well just from my point of view, I’m a Verizon user, who has had a Treo 650 for a little over a year. I have had nothing but problems with this, and when the Q came out, didn’t even think about getting it. I had been waiting for the 8703e for months, and got it the day it was on the site, so while some might be going for the Q, the Blackberry is light years ahead of the Treo.

  • Thought

    As a counterpoint, I know of some people who are literally throwing away their Q’s and other Win Mobile devices to switch to the new BB 8703 on Verizon.

    Will the Q take some users away from BB, esp. CDMA users here in the states? Sure…but that will be balanced out by those moving from the Q to BB, esp. now that the BB 8703 is out on Verizon.

    I’ve tried out the Q and it really disappointed me, even though I really wanted to like it because of its design. The OS is slow and buggy, and often counterintuitive to operate. After you use it for a little while, it seems more like a toy. There is no comparison to a BB. The BB experience is vastly superior.

  • http://www.rimarkable.com Robb Dunewood

    I think that the 8703e could make this a mute point for many Verizon users. A lot of them just want to buy a new device as some of them have had there 7250s for several years.

  • http://rickmahn.com/ Rick Mahn

    Windows Mobile will gain quite a bit of BB market share, with the Moto Q being only one small part of it. Widespread devices running Windows Mobile will be the key because many average users simply want to read their office email on their phone, but don’t need to reply often.

    Devices like the new Cingular 3125 “flip” phone is a great example of what people have been looking for on the “normal” phone side.

    The new T-Mobile Dash is one of the devices in the Moto Q/BlackBerry format that will actually set the stage. While the Q got a lot of attention for being the first WM5 smartphone with landscape display and QWERTY keyboard, devices like the Dash and an upcoming Samsung unit, will really be the dependable widely deployed devices that give BBs a run for their money.

    By the way, GSM is the predominent wireless technology in the US now as it passed CDMA sometime this summer. Also, as 3G/4G implementations go forward, you will see a merging of technologies for the US market that will go a long way to minimize issues brought up here.

    The latest crop of BlackBerrys are very impressive, and will bolster the BB market for now. Unless RIM continues to drive innovation in their designs like they have with the 87xx series and Perl devices, they will have some trouble staying ahead of WM.

  • Albert

    I will say that I have worked with all sorts of WM5 and blackberry devices. All are pretty good, however, WM5 is buggy regardless of the hardware platform, and you have to treat it like windows which means you must reset it occasionally (i.e. at least once a week). I like the Q, but I dislike that the home screen is rather limited in customization, and the battery life is piss poor. Activesync is great, but some organizations such as mine do not have the topology necessary to make it available (which we are rectifying).

    All in all it just comes down to choice, and eventually who can go beyond just PIM + e-mail

  • Don

    I actually went the opposite direction. I had a treo 600 which was good but I killed, Then I got a Q and hated it. Finally I have found that I like the 7130e because it fuctions more like a phone but gives me the smartphone features I need.

  • Liam

    I was in a Sales Meeting just the other day. I have the 7130e and a few of my coworkers have the Q. I’m sad to say that if I were to buy a Smart Phone through Verizon today that I would get the Q. Why? The complete ease of opening email attachements. ie. pdf’s, words, excel, etc. The quality of the screen is far superior.

    People get Blackberrys fo remail mostly and the Q simply does email better.

    Now, What would you recommend for a good viewing of attachments of the 7130e. THe built in attachments software is just crap.

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