Saturday, March 6, 2010

The BlackBerry Bold; not so Smart, but a good Phone

In the evolution of “smart phones,” there was a time when the BlackBerry could have been considered the smartest phone around.  Times have changed, but BlackBerry, not so very much.  Well, that’s not entirely true; my first BlackBerry, you remember it, that odd shaped phone that was kind of wide and squatty, was tough as nails, fit the hand well, and I could type like no tomorrow.
So, some things have changed.  RIM has bought into style over function, and who knows, this has probably sold more phones. Of course some work has gone to function, like the track ball.  Unfortunately the track ball also made the phone somewhat fragile.  We have gone through them so fast at work, at least they always look new, which makes purchasing a service contract a necessity.  We have also noticed that the Curves likes to lockup while taking it out of the holster when receiving an email or phone call.
Recently I just replaced the Curve with the Bold 9700.  So far I’ve found the touch pad, in place of the track ball a great improvement.  I just hope it will hold up and last longer than the track ball; time will tell.  The newer Bold is also smaller and I believe its the same size (or darn close) as the Curve.  I was looking forward to having larger keys like on the original Bold, but oh well.
The Bold has the potential to be a good work phone for making calls, reading and sending basic emails, text, etc., but thats about it.  The screen is really too small to do much internet surfing or reading Google News, but if your in a tight, it will work.  It does have tethering capabilities, however you lose your phone function while doing so.
If this new Bold will be tough as nails, like their originals, it will be a much appreciated step forward.  I just wish they would make a few functional upgrades and not worry so much about style.  I know in my work, if the BlackBerry would tether wirelessly and/or double as a hub for say three or four laptops while still maintaining phone functionality, we would dump all our air cards in a heartbeat.  A wide selection of apps wouldn’t hurt either.
The fact is that BlackBerry is an excellent foundation for a phone of the future.  It would also dominate the business market, leaving the Iphone in the dust.  I just hope they are not using the Palm playbook on how to go from first to last.  
RIM, it really wouldn’t take too much to make BlackBerry an outstanding “Smart Phone” again!