[MW Forums]

The number of BlackBerry account holders reached 6.2 million at the beginning of September, but IDC says trouble may lie ahead for RIM. more

[leicaman]

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The number of BlackBerry account holders reached 6.2 million at the beginning of September, but IDC says trouble may lie ahead for RIM. <a href="/news/2006/09/29/blackberry/index.php">[more]</a>

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Okay, so I've been thinking of getting a T-Mobile Blackberry for $19.95 a month. What can compete with that? I want to know before I buy if there's something better for Internet and Email on a mobie device. I might even move my phone number to the Blackberry and drop my land line.

[Peter Cohen]

I've had an 8700 from Cingular for about a month and to say I'm happy with it is an understatement. It works fabulously, provides a clear signal and helps me stay in touch when I'm not in the office -- I have it check four separate e-mail accounts. What's more, thanks to a deal between RIM and Information Appliance Associates, you can download a version of PocketMac for free that lets you sync data between your phone and the Mac. I can't say it's perfect, but for the price, well, it definitely gets the job done.

[ddd1301]

Okay, so I've been thinking of getting a T-Mobile Blackberry for $19.95 a month. What can compete with that? I want to know before I buy if there's something better for Internet and Email on a mobie device. I might even move my phone number to the Blackberry and drop my land line.

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If you just want email, then the Blackberry is great for that. You have to get higher-end Blckberry's to get good voicecalls. A lot of Blackberry's sound tinny and can be hard to hear on. Most of the folks I know went through several to get good sound.
I love T-Mobile as a provider, but I prefer a Palm device. My family still uses T-Mobile, but I am now using a Treo 700P with Verizon. It is awesome!!
The Treo browser also seems to be better than the RIM browser. (Although It is not perfect.) I wish more sites would get their act together in supporting mobile devices.

[dux5]

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I've had an 8700 from Cingular for about a month and to say I'm happy with it is an understatement. It works fabulously, provides a clear signal and helps me stay in touch when I'm not in the office

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I'm with Peter.
I've had a 7100 for about 18 months now. For communication, IMO, it's a vastly superior device to the Palm -- especially in regards to e-mail. You're not going to run Mobile Office or that type of application on this device, so that's probably the downside compared to the Treo option.
Of course, I had all those options on my Palm prior to getting the BlackBerry. The Palm just sat on my desk.
In terms of e-mail, I get near-instant delivery of items sent to my BlackBerry directly. Like Peter, I also check multiple accouts which are also pushed to the handheld at regular intervals (just like Mail.app logs into a POP server).
I find this to be far more convenient than opening an app to check mail. When a new message arrives, the handheld beeps at me. End of story.
It truly makes it easier (mentally) to be away from the office, at least for me.
The Web browser doesn't offer tremendous speed. However, I can log in to a traffic site and check freeway conditions while I'm stopped at a light. I can set the thing in front of me during a meeting and still get updated results from NHL.com or read news from here or CNN.
Is it an iPhone? No!
Is the interface and navigation lacking compared to my Mac? Undoubtedly.
But, it's no where near as bad as the UI on the Motorola phones I've used.
The iPhone is really the only thing I'd consider dumping it for. On the other hand, I'm not dying to get my hands on an iPhone, either.

[Peter Cohen]

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The Web browser doesn't offer tremendous speed. However, I can log in to a traffic site and check freeway conditions while I'm stopped at a light. I can set the thing in front of me during a meeting and still get updated results from NHL.com or read news from here or CNN.

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One thing that rocks my world with the 8700 is being able to run the maps.google.com client that Google makes available for it. I've used it several times for directions, which have worked flawlessly.