Does anybody else remember when the Blackberry was an elusive electronic device and only high-powered executives seemed to be able to find them and put them to use everyday? Now Blackberry is trying to become the “everyphone” and really, who doesn’t want a phone that will do just about everything except fold your socks?
We knew that the cell phone/smart phone market would explode after the success of the iPhone (which is due to drop significantly in price any day now), but who knew it would be the Blackberry leading the charge?
Remember when leaving your house meant becoming, essentially disconnected from the world until you reached your destination? Those days are long gone. Now we are all hyper-connected to each other all the time. Even with features like caller ID, etc., we can’t escape each other. There certainly are benefits to being so connected (in the event of an accident you have a way to get help, and when you can’t remember the exact kind of mustard your significant other requested, you can call them from the condiments aisle at the store), but the Blackberry and the iPhone have made it impossible to take time off.
I remember when PDAs and cell phones were separate entities, when a person’s bag would have a cell phone, a PDA, a pager, an mp3 player or portable discman and a mini tape recorder. Now? There is an all in one “smart phone” that will let you send e-mail, make calls, listen to music, watch television, record sound and (in some cases) even video conference. That’s an awful lot of power for something that fits into one hand.
Of course, people still moan about the Blackberry’s lack of battery power, and as I type, there are other smart phone manufacturers trying to best the Blackberry, but will any of them have the same brand power that the Blackberry has?
