[rbenjami]

Goodbye Blackberry. It's been a good run. Over a decade.

In mid-2001 I got my first blackberry. I believe it was called the 950. It looked like a pager and was the only thing that worked in NYC following the 9/11 attacks. It's reliability went unmatched. It didnt have a phone.

I then got a 5820, which looked like a paperback book and had a phone. Well, it sort of had a phone. You had to use a wired earpiece to talk to anyone.

Next, I got a blue 7230, which is the first all-in-one blackberry. It also had the first usable web browser. I played many rounds of brickbreaker on the 7230 (some in the men's room). I kept that 7230 for a VERY long time. I remember fighting with our IT department when they tried to make me upgrade. I loved the huge keyboard.

Eventually, I got an 8900 that I used until the ball fell out. Then I got a replacement 8900 and used that until the ball got stuck and simply wouldnt turn anymore. I think I sent out an announcement of my daughter's birth from the delivery room on my 8900.

Finally, I upgraded to the 9700, which I have used for the past few years.

I bought a PlayBook the day it was announced - and held off getting an iPad for nearly a year while I waited for Blackberry to release the device I REALLY wanted.

My wife has also been a faithful blackberry user. She has had a litany of devices, including the flipphone and one of the Pearl devices with the krazy keyboard!

Like all good things, it has come to an end. My wife and I will be getting rid of our 9700s and ordering new iPhone 5s tomorrow. (We already have an iPad - I won it at a charity auction earlier this year.)

The real reason we are leaving BlackBerry is because of the apps. Sure the devices have become more and more boring and the build quality has become somewhat spotty, but the real reason is that the apps just aren't coming. RIM has kept us waiting for a very long time. And we were patient. I paid $600 for that supid PlayBook and it still doesnt have Skype, Kindle, or a working gps.

I'm simply done.

I also wanted to say goodbye to Crackberry. I have posted here over the years and helped others (and received help). It is a great resource and BlackBerry users are (generally) a nice group of people.

So, thanks for everything Blackberry. We had a good run. You just couldn't keep up.

[_StephenBB81]

http://forums.crackberry.com/general...t-here-260887/