The other day I was having a conversation with a colleague that told me that they finally broke down and bought their first BlackBerry even though it isn’t quite there yet. I asked him what he meant by “not being there yet” and he said that the BlackBerry won’t allow him to leave his laptop at home. This got me to thinking. Is it really meant to?
I know that there is a subset of BlackBerry users that does everything with their device, including, showing PowerPoint presentations, however, I imagine that the majority of even the most die-hard BlackBerry addicts use their device primarily to send and receive and make phone calls.
When it comes to my laptop I tend to carry it everyplace that I could actually use it even though I have my BlackBerry with me pretty much 100% of the time. I love my 7130e, but, I have yet to find anything, less slipping it into my pocket and making calls, that it does better than my laptop. My BlackBerry allows me to stay connected when using my laptop isn’t convenient, however, I don’t see nor have I ever seen my BlackBerry as a replacement .
I honestly don’t see my BlackBerry ever, at least not in the near future, replacing my laptop. Is it just me?
I never thought of my BlackBerry as a laptop. To me it’s a supplemental device, not something designed to replace anything. It cleary shows its value those times when it’s not practical to startup my laptop.
Although the BlackBerry does have many basic laptop functions, I only tend to use those features (e.g. internet) when I’m on the go and not near my laptop. It’s not very practical to use the BlackBerry as a laptop since it takes so much longer to do things like type and for webpages to load, but it’s very nice to have those features available.
I don’t really use it to replace my laptop, but it would be really great if it could at times when I don’t have my laptop with me. Just knowing that type of convenience is available to me when I need it would be worth it if they decided to come out with a more sophisticated BB.
No it doesn’t replace my laptop either. There are certain things a full size keyboard and a large screen are better at. Even with our BB’s coming with WiFi the need for the laptop will remain, at least for me. I’ve had alot of phones and PDA’s but so far none are laptop replacements, and those that come close are too big to consider as a day to day cell phone. The Nokia E61i probably came the closest to laptop replacement but it had many hardware and software flaws to say nothing about it’s HUGE form factor. The BB Pearl packs most of the power, functions better as a phone, kills them all on email (of course) and no one can beat Suretype or the Pearl’s form factor. RIM has been proving they know what they are doing and doing it very well.
While the BB is certainly no laptop, there are instances where a BB can be as good as a laptop. Why do many people take a laptop? For many it’s to answer emails. For short jaunts, a BB can serve the purpose of a laptop, but be far easier to carry around.
On longer trips, however, a laptop is better, if you need to create or edit Office docs, or run specialized apps on a full PC, or access specialized apps via a web browser.
I guess the root of the question goes to what does one carry a laptop for? Once you answer that, you can easily determine if a BB can do those things.
For short trips (up to 2 nights), I travel without labtop and only my BB8800. In urgent cases when I need to send very long emails or open large attachments I can use Outlook Exchange Webmail or GoToMyPC to access my desktop from the business centre of a hotel. For trips longer than 2 nights, bringing my labtop is a must.
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Annnnnnnnyway, back to the topic at hand:
I think Thought nailed it on the head. Assuming you need business connectivity on the road, the BB can serve as a temporary laptop replacement, depending on the length of your trip and what you need to do while on the road.
I suppose there are some people who could dump their laptop in favor of nothing but a BB, but I suspect such business users are few and far between.
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Can anybody PLEASE refer me to a software product that allows me to seamlessly use my laptop to run my blackberry?
I run a small business, and if I could only send SMS and email via my USB-connected blackberry I would be ecstatic!
I would be very interested in paying even a premium price to be able to manage my BB content and send/recieve emails/SMS through my phone.
For the life of me I cannot work out why I cannot plug in my BB and automatically access the calendar, addresses, etc, and run them in the same way that I would with any other PC program.
PLEASE!!!! ANYONE WHO CAN DIRECT ME TO APPROPRIATE SOFTWARE, I WILL OWE YOU A STEAK DINNER!
Brad Griggs
Canine Behaviourist
Canine Services International
Australia
brad@k9services.com.au