[jefo13]

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=27E6DDE6BBC627AB0484AABC16B7352 4.w6?a=832702&f=23

Apologies if this is already posted.

Interesting read as the obviously biased writer struggles to bash the 9900, however gets away with bashing the Playbook which while short of some features it is in my opinion the most creative phone companion tablet...and its sound? My iPad barely has speakers. C'mon this guys has not spent more than 10 minutes with a Playbook. Anyway RIM is struggling in the US but imo a big part of the 9900 in a vacuum comment is due to poor carrier support.

Read it!

Oh yeah, some intelligent supportive comments from NYT readers in there too...

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[BigD00d]

I find there's a culture of 'It's not Apple/Android, and thus it sucks' in pretty much any mobile-phone/tablet review channels at the moment, if only because Apple and Android are the 'in' phone companies right now.

I also feel there's a bit more of a learning curve to a BB than to an apple or an android(at least to use them right out the bat). Apple has a very big push to make the iPhone and iOS 'feel' easy to use(mostly by taking away your choices, i.e., the 'training wheels' argument), and Android, while you can customize it quite a lot, has the same problems as Linux does(it's non-standardized, updates are spotty depending on what phone/manufacturer/hardware you sport, and using things made by anyone means it might become buggy/laggy/mess up[And don't get me wrong, I loves me some Linux, but there's a reason it plays third fiddle to Windows/iOS]). Blackberry has the advantage that it's in-house manufactured and coded, but is customizable without being sporadic/confusing.

Blackberries I think require a bit of a learning curve. People get weirded out by having to use a menu system(even though it's faster once you've learned it than just having everything dumped in your lap in one or so context menus/home screens), and about half the people I know who have gotten blackberries complain to me until I tell them 'Just hit the little BB-button, and you can fiddle with everything from there'. whihc usually ends with an 'Ohhhh....well that's cool...".

But also about the look and style. Droid phones are eycatching. They generally have giant, animated touch-screens, big clunky side-buttons. They usually have a slide-out option of some sort. The iPhone has that white, sterile ikea-look that's very modern/contemporary.

Blackberries, by contrast, are far more subtle. A Blackberry is normally jet-black(barring the few white models, but those are options, just like you can get a Mercedes in white or even gold), and rather than standing out, melds with a professional image. A Blackberry in the hands of someone dressed for business doesn't stand out. it's not supposed to. It's made to be part of that dark suit and black-leather interior standard. At most models like the new Bold sport a stainless steel band, and even that is still muted in its expression. A Droid or an iPhone are meant to be looked at, saying 'Hey, hey!Look!I've got this GIANT screen, or 'I bought an Apple'. A Blackberry is something to get you looked at, because you're doing something important.

[r.santa1]

Great write up, my sentiments exactly

[BigD00d]

Great write up, my sentiments exactly

Yeah well, Writing Major. I'll take an advertising contract from RIM now please:P