Om Malik, 15 year technology writing verteran, former senior writer at Business 2.0, and founder of the GigaOm network, has decided to drop his iPhone for the T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve 8900.
Om’s move to the BlackBerry Curve 8900, wasn’t because of a failing of the iPhone itself, but, because of a failing of the network that the iPhone runs on.
AT&T’s network just wasn’t cutting it for me. I even tried using a BlackBerry, but the network issues never quite went away. Then over the past few days, my iPhone was spending ungodly stretches of time “searching” for the network, the download speeds of web pages slowed down, and email — well that’s a whole other story. The static, the dropped calls and above all the shoddy call quality were enough to raise my blood pressure. And given my medical history, that’s not a good thing. The only feature that worked flawlessly: SMS.
Om Plans to use his BlackBerry Curve 8900 primarily for SMS and Text. He also got a Verizon mobile phone just for voice. Om’s crew over at GigaOm have often referred to the iPhone as the superphone. A weak network, however, reduces the superphone to an expensive iPod touch.
Welcome back to the BlackBerry Om. Maybe you should write a post about how Verizon should come out with a new BlackBerry with a full QWERTY keyboard sooner rather than later.
[Via GigaOm]
i just did the same thing yesterday. moved from att bold to tmobile. amazing reception so far even on edge. i love the uma.
i was tired of poor network coverage. they could not give an answer on when femtocell would be available.
bye bye att!
Sounds like Om is grandstanding a bit here. So he replaced his iPhone due to his ideas of “network issues” and his solution to replace the iPhone sends him to t-mo and verizon? Guess to Om “it takes two baby” to replace the iPhone?
“Anyway this morning, while conducting a phone interview, the call dropped on me twice. Enough was enough. A few minutes later, I went to T-Mobile’s company store and got myself a BlackBerry Curve 8900 for email and SMS”
So a call drops and Om’s solution is to go to t-mo and get a device not for voice but for email and sms?
“I also signed up for a plain-vanilla voice service from Verizon Wireless.”
Why verizon just for the voice? Why not a BB Curve, or Storm on verizon for everything? No solution for internet service?
Next up on Om, he’ll describe how he got out of his t-mo and verizon contracts due to issues and why moved back to at&t for “more bars in more places”, “for the nations fastest 3G network” and for his iPhone “superphone” that he missed terribly as dealing with t-mo’s slow data network, and dealing with verizon “isn’t worth the trouble”
I’ve been reading GigaOm since it launched and I can tell you that Om is a big fan of the iPhone. I am sure that if it were offered on T-Mobile or Veriozn that he simply would have changed carriers an stayed with the iPhone.
I found myself in the same situation though. I loved my iPhone but when I moved out fo the city and AT&T service is horrible where I live now. At&T even let me out of my contract without an EFT becuase of some many complaints.
I still have my iPhone but I just use it as an iPod Touch and have been loving my BlackBerry Curve on Verizon since last year. I just wish i could use it to get my iPhone on the internet via bluetooth or something.
ATT may not be Verizon, but where I live it’s been pretty good on the iPhone. In most cases I have coverage both with VZW and ATT.
ATT Coverage is fine in the area I live, but I look forward to the day that the iPhone is released from ATTs grip. Would Verizon dare cripple the iPhone when they are able to get it? Would Apple allow it to be crippled just to get on a better network? I’m guessing No on both.
Even though I am a die-hard iPhone user I thought I would leave my two cents cause i use a BlackBerry 8830 for work.
I live in the city and my AT&T coverage is pretty good. It is kind of hit or miss at my work which is way out in the burbs but I have to use my BlackBerry for work anyway so it is really not that big of a deal. What I do to make sure that I get the best coverage all the time is just forward my calls on the iPhone to my BlackBerry. The only thing that sucks is that you are still charged for air time so you still have to keep minutes in your plan.
On the weekends and I forward my BlackBerry to my iPhone because generally am in the city and get good enough coverage and don’t have to lug two devices around.
@TB — Believe it or not, Apple offered the iPhone to Verizon first. Verizon wouldn’t agree to leaving the phone unmodified which is the main reason talks broke down. Hindsight is 20/20 however, I wonder, if Apple comes out with another device if Verizon will be willing to deal with Apples demands this go round.
@iPhone4Life — Would you still have a second phone if your job didn’t provide a BlackBerry?
TB,
The same could turned around this way.
“Would Verizon dare cripple the (BLACKBERRY) when they are able to get it? Would (RIM) allow it to be crippled just to get on a better network? I’m guessing No on both.” But that guess would be wrong as verizon has a bad habit of doing it.
Which is why smartphone manufactures need to keep control of their smartphones and not allow the service providers to make changes. Another reason why RIM should follow Apple and not allow service provider to make changes in their devices, IMO it also wouldn’t hurt RIM to start selling and servicing their devices direct.
I agree with the previous poster: UMA on TMO is awesome. I was in the Bahamas in November with my TMO Curve placing phone calls on WiFi for free. You don’t even have to pay the $10 a month to use it. If you don’t pay the $10 the UMA calls still count against your minutes. That was fine because I did not use all of my minutes as it was (the Curve was my secondary phone to my VZW phone).
AT&T is terrible where I live. My girlfriend uses AT&T and I have tried AT&T twice; no luck. Coverage is spotty and call quality is terrible. You hear static and calls are dropped. TMO coverage is good, but not great. The call quality is excellent though. Now I am back to just one phone: VZW Curve. Great coverage and call quality, but I miss having WiFi on my phone.
I reside where AT&T is headquartered and reception is average at best. Call quality is good, but “more bars in more places” it’s not. You would think they’d have their corporate location performing well.
I wonder where he resided that AT&T doesn’t work for him? It works fine for me.
BTW, (my friends have) T-mobile and Verizon have many dead zone in Oregon but my AT&T always works both indoor and outdoor. I’d say one network is better than the other just depend on where you live and where you use. In here, I tried both T-mobile and Verizon but I ended up using AT&T. I bet someone lives in Oregon would disagree!
I did this too – dropped my iphone for a bold after a year of (almost) happy iphoneing. I eventually started dropping calls and not getting/sending texts (EVER) and to a college girl, texting is IMPERATIVE. I switched up SIM cards which fixed the problem and switched to the bold because I’m sorry, the iphone is NOT made for texting. Besides the fact that it doesn’t HOLD enough of them, typing is utterly impossible. I did not appreciate the fragility of the glass screen either. I do NOT miss my iphone.
Om didn’t drop his iPhone due to device problems, in fact Om calls the iPhone a superphone. Seems your pleased with at&t service since your still with them while enjoying a BB Bold. Wow the SMS on the iPhone is better than most. When you claim “fragility of the glass screen” what happened? It’s a rather rugged and forgiving design. Something is very strange and/or we are not getting all the info.
Rock – please take the fanboi crap somewhere else – you’re stinking up the place.
While I didn’t dump my iphone, I just picked up an 8900. I resisted the desire for an iphone because of ATT service and tools for business on the iphone. The 8900 has been great. High res screen fast processor, great storage. props to RIM.
I just checked out the 8900 today at TMO and I have to say, aside from the lack of 3G, it rocks! Fast, light, perfect size and the keyboard is the best I’ve put my fingers on. If TMO had a decent 3G network (and this device had 3G), I’d go for it, but I’ll have to sit back and wait until VZW comes out with it. I really can’t see many people who heavily use the browser on the road buying this device. With AT&T slowly taking down 2G, there’s not going to be much for TMO to have this device run off of since they bounce on AT&T’s network a bit.
And yes, I’d trade in my Storm for this one when it does hit VZW.
The Shadow “- please take the fanboi crap somewhere else – you’re stinking up the place.”
Who the fuck gives a fuck about this Om motherfucker? From the looks of it, he’ll be sick of fucking his wife one day and move on to fuck his daughter, son, mom & dad. Then again who the fuck gives a fuck about this pretentious cocksucker who has no idea of what he’s blabbing about? Tell me.. who the fuck gives a fuck about this dick-worshiping wanker? Who?