So, I was just taking a look Engadget’s 10 Gadgets That Defined The Decade and I have simply got to call foul. In some type of complete travesty of justice, the Palm Treo makes the list, yet, the BlackBerry only gets an honorable mention.
I just have four words… Are you frigging kidding!?!
The BlackBerry is the primary reason (horrendous management is a close second) for the demise of the Treo and Palm in general and I dare say that no other gadget, less the cell phone and laptop have had a bigger impact on business this decade than has the BlackBerry.
Now, I write the post with tongue in check because the very nature of this type of list generates tons of debate and discussion, however, leaving the BlackBerry off this list is far worse than putting the Eee PC on it.
Is this a typo right here: “…the very nature of this type of this type of list …” And yes, please put the BlackBerry on that list!!
yes it was… thanks for the heads up.
Listen, nobody takes the hacks over at Engadget seriously. The reporting over there can best be described as journalism by proxy.
They said that BB was overall very influential, but no singular device had a major impact, and i agree with that. For better or worse, their multitude of phone offerings both dilute the brand and give consumers a choice (of phones AND carriers).
No single device? The Blackberry Curve would fit that profile perfectly.
Exactly, that was the phone that introduced the rest of the world to efficient mobile email.
See I can’t agree with this statement.
Consider the Blackberry and what made it so popular. The Blackberry used to be the staple phone of executives and company presidents. If you were of any stature you had a Blackberry. This made them seriously sought after. RIM entered the market as the defacto business phone. Once RIM stepped in to the consumer market they brought a whole new atmosphere to the environment. They didn’t, how ever, do it with any big bang or wow. They offered consumers something better than most of the junk out there: A phone with decent battery, keyboard, and an OS that allows for web browsing and general email setup. There was nothing amazing about this entry, it was just an effective move by RIM. For me the curve is nothing special. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great phone, just nothing special. The Storm would have been something special if they hadn’t bollixed it up. The Bold could have been something special if it wasn’t secluded to AT&T’s network and expensive as hell.
I love Blackberry and I’m a fan of RIM. If anything they should have put the idea and the concept of Blackberry as one of the top 10 devices of the past decade. The very concept and fabric of how the Blackberry works and operates is what makes it so strong (and in some cases it’s major weakness.)
Its hard to say that the Curve was more influential than the Treo, keep in mind the Treo 600 arrived in 2003 with a touchscreen, ringer off/on switch, thousands of apps and in a compact form factor that put to shame all the other Palm OS and Pocket PC phones out at the time.
Up until the fall of this year(09), the BlackBerry Curve 83xx series devices, alone, outsold the iPhone , which is and should be on this list, here in the United States. The Curve at it’s height shipped more units in a 9 month period than all the Treos sold in the decade.
I am no expert but if one device can do in under a year what what another couldn’t do in 10…
I’m not saying… I’m just saying…
Engadget SUCKS!!
I think the list was spot on. The BB is a glorified pager. Get over it.
Lol, time and time again people forget about BlackBerry. That niggling fact that RIM has the biggest Smartphone marketshare in the US, and the fact that they are number 2 behind Symbian in the rest of the world, is lost on these guys.
The general prevailing wisdom is that Apple is the standard.
The public disagrees and continue to buy Blackberrys. That’s what frosts fanboys of other smartphones. RIM continues to widen it’s marketshare. Apple only peeled away marketshare from Windows Mobile.
It’s the FACT but hey let’s not get in the way of that to make a good story!
That will all end when the Apple/AT&T deal is over. Once the iphone is available on Verizon, Sprint and TMO, it will be all over for the BB.
Possibly, but, not probably… If killing the BlackBerry were just a matter of Apple offering the iPhone on more carriers than AT&T, this would have been done after year one.
I can’t tell you how many people I heard say that if the iphone was offered on x carrier, they would get it. Most “consumer” BB users choose the BB because the iphone isn’t available to them. Once it is, then its game over for BB.
“…it will be all over for the BB”????
That is such a foolish, ludicrous statement.
To imply that the only reason BB is still alive is because the iPhone is limited to AT&T right now is total BS.
Have fun with your clearly flawed logic.
We shall see.
“Most “consumer” BB users choose the BB because the iphone isn’t available to them.”
Think again emo fanboi
@ EVERYONE BUT SPECIFICALLY GQUAGLIA.
I agree that the blackberry should have been included on that list. As a person who owns both blackberry and iphone i like them both because they fill gaps that the other doesn’t do as well.
In saying that the blackberry isn’t a oversized pager and it shows that a comment like that comes from someone who doesn’t fully understand what push technology is.
I am an American living in Australia at the moment and all the mobile phone telcos have iPhones but the blackberry seems to be holding it’s own very well. And yes i work in mobile sales for Vodafone so i see the evidence of this everyday.
once the exclusivity of the iphone ends in the states the flood gates will be open on the iphone , but once that demand is satiated will the iphone go the way of Razr ? i think so. It wont be for years to come though.
It cannot be denied though the relevance blackberry has and continues to have if they innovate. Blackberries had internet and emails on phones before edge and 3G became available to the masses. Isnt that relevant ?
I think one of the main gripes about Iphone fans and not the phone itself is that they are so over-zealous in there love, pride and or trendy factor of the device that they forget that there were phone like blackberry that made functions now popular on the iphone possible.
I would love to see how our mobile infrastructure will hold up when the flood gates are opened on the iphone. I feel that it is not sustainable and the iphone is going to end up …. looking like a blackberry with push technology. And LTE will not save it either.
But i am sure with human ingenuity we will sort it out. In the meantime i will be submitting my resume to Apple… as they look like a big cash cow that i want to ride to riches thanks to all the fanboys !!!
I know all about BBs, I’ve had 3 of them, my last one being the 9000. And I believe Palm was the first big player in the smartphone arena, not RIM.
that wasn’t my point. What i was nicely trying to do is remove your head out of your ass through logic and reason, specifically about the iphone juxtapose to the blackberry. I think i covered Palm when i said “phone like blackberry that made functions now popular on the iphone possible”.
but thanks for the feedback
How stupid are you!
Just read, it’s not that difficult. I’m quoting “We could try to explain the importance, impact and popularity of the BlackBerry this decade, but instead we’ve given it its very own decade feature to tell its tale. ”
So they didn’t put a blackberry in the list because they made a seprate list with all the blackberry’s from the last decade, which can be found here: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/28/ten-years-of-blackberry/
“Now, I write the post with tongue in check because the very nature of this type of list generates tons of debate and discussion”
Lol this is a world market…. Blackberry is #2 is the world behind Symbian… Apple is #3 and last I checked both were on a upward trajectory with no signs that Apple will actually eclipse RIM… You guys make me laugh… Apple has a good phone… RIM just has a better one!
I would say the engadget guys are a little slanted towards palm. And I think sales do matter to a point to deciding what defines a product, because if sales to a product are high, then it’s obviously defining at least popularity.
Engadg made a big deal over the Pre when it was released, and it wasn’t a big hit. Perhaps Yavwill is right: they’re slanted towards Palm a bit.