Blackberry or..? for small business/startup
- Absolutely don't want to start new flame or something.
What I want is to figure out why Blackberry might be *better* solution for small business or young startup. I am not talking about corporations with their IT departments to handle BES. What I am looking at is a small business owner with may be personal and "company" email account; or using free Google Apps to power all "IT infrastructure". It's pretty common nowadays, as it provides nice and reliable Calendar, Contacts, Email. (free!)
So, my question is, why Blackberry might be better choice instead of iPhone or Android phones? I want to explain it to somebody, but only things I can come up with are:
1) Real keyboard, easier to type
2) Better battery life
That's probably it. All smartphones nowadays allow you to view PDFs, browse a little bit, and all do integrate with Google Apps nicely.
Did I miss something? Anything about reliability?
How reliable is say 9700?
Besides, I've got another question -- do you think that Storm/Storm2 is a nice Blackberry device? It's touch - that's the root of my question -- is it really a nice RIM/Blackberry device? I didn't see a lot of people using it, most Blackberry users I know *want* and *prefer* physical keyboard.05-28-10 03:26 PMLike 0 - My preference runs to a physical keyboard and BB is the best IMHO. I do lots of business e-mail so typing easily is a must.
BB security and push e-mail are big pluses in my world.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com05-28-10 03:46 PMLike 0 -
I don't know what Meetings you pull into, but having BB barely gets noticed, we all have them, across the entire industry I work in, 90% of Cellphone carrying people are BB users.
NOW as a Small/Business Start up, you have to ask yourself what do people you will be working with use?
BBM is useful for me and a couple of my dealers as I can fire off a quick BBM about a inventory fill requirements, and can share detail about where I am globally with many clients at once. without being intrusive.
I DO know that the BB can accept Outlook Vcards into the address book natively, not sure if iPhone and Android OS can do that, get someone to check for ya, as I get a lot of business contacts sent to me via Vcard, and send out vCards.
How many staff do you have? and how will you communicate? again BBM is awesome for quick check ins and details and is included in the data plan so no need for txt plans, which can save you money, if you are using it purely for business, you can probably get away with a 50MB dataplan, you could never do that on an iPhone or Android, as they don't compress data and full HTML emails which to me are a pain to read but apparently people want them are Datahogs,
IF battery life is what is most important to you, NOTHING beats Blackberry for Life/Recharge Speed/feature set.
Now when I say Blackberry though I do mean a keyboard based Blackberry, the touch screens eat battery life doesn't matter the company.
what I like about BB is you can buy the extended Battery's and keep 2 on hand so for a 5 minute reboot time you can run 2-3 days not having to be near a charge which means I can keep "working" whilst boating/hunting/camping.
I have relatively small hands, wearing a Mens Medium Motorcycle glove, and the keyboard on the Tour is awesome for me, I MISS the features of my BB keyboard when on the notebook now. so if you are a Mens Medium or small you'll have no issues with size, if you are a Large or XL you might have to look for a landscape phone.05-28-10 06:05 PMLike 0 - These "posers" never cease to amaze me! You don't know how many times I've seen someone with a blackberry and thought "Now there's a serious professional!05-28-10 06:48 PMLike 0
- I have relatively small hands, wearing a Mens Medium Motorcycle glove, and the keyboard on the Tour is awesome for me, I MISS the features of my BB keyboard when on the notebook now. so if you are a Mens Medium or small you'll have no issues with size, if you are a Large or XL you might have to look for a landscape phone.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com05-28-10 07:54 PMLike 0 -
I WISH they would build another 9000 sized phones, I love that keyboard!
but I think Rim is has moved to all the small sleek keyboard and no more BIG Berry's05-28-10 08:37 PMLike 0 -
.... You carry a blackberry in hopes that someone with see you too as a "serious professional".
...05-29-10 10:26 AMLike 0 - Reed McLayRetired Moderator...
IMHO, over 20 Million of the most influential business, legislative and engineering professionals use BlackBerry becasue that is the de facto standard.
The other 20 Million users, those that depend on reliable communications in maintaining their lively hood, are not bound by an IT departments rules, can have many of the same benefits.
What really counts is performance. Not responding to message in a timely manner can be a serious career limiting event.
05-29-10 10:31 AMLike 0 -
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I will say this, when I see a guy in a nice suit and tie, carrying a brief case and talking on a flip phone, it does look kinda funny to me, I'm just saying...06-02-10 11:09 AMLike 0 - I saw a 15 year old kid with a blackberry today, so IMO he must be some type serious businessman.
Yay, opinions are fun!06-02-10 11:11 AMLike 0 - I'm a professional and attend meetings regularly with major CEO's and CTO's, They've asked about my iPhone all the time. My 11yr old daughter has a BB, does that make her a "professional"? It was the only spare phone I had laying around that wasn't used for target practice when her regular flip phone broke. My wife hates her BB and can't wait until her replacement iPhone comes in.
At the company I work for, I'm the head of the IT department and we have a mixture of iPhones and BB's. More and more people are moving over to the iPhones here and no complaints from the Exec's that have them either. Mine is on the charger at night only unless I'm doing a long conference call on the way into work or home. At work I rarely charge it and that's after a 10-12hr workday.
It all depends on what you want to do and how much you want to spend.06-02-10 11:31 AMLike 0 -
- I think the best thing to do is look at what you need your smart phone to do as part of your business. Do you mostly need web access? e-mail? instant messaging? Will you be taking inventory, invoicing, charging credit cards? Will you be updating websites, blogs, or other online portals? Does carrier matter? Which carriers have the best service in your area? Will you be using it for lots of phone calls? Are your office computers PC or Mac? Do you need to do a lot of multi-tasking on your smart phone? Do you need to access multiple e-mail addresses?
A lot of people in my profession went the way of the iPhone. Mainly due to the fact that we tend to show off photographs and such, and the iPhone's screen does very well as a mini presentation system. But, a couple of my local colleagues got rid of their iPhones since AT&T doesn't have the best service in our area (one couldn't even receive calls in his office unless he went out to the parking lot).
Best thing to do is look at what you want your smart phone to do, then decide which device can cover those options the best.06-02-10 04:47 PMLike 0
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Blackberry or..? for small business/startup
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