Originally Posted by
Stides I am really trying to be patient. As blackberry faithful, we have been behind for the last two years hoping RIM will catch up. I remember when we hoped os6 would level the playing field, and os 5 before that. It just gets tiring. As you can see from the posts here and in other forums on this site storm users are leaving for android. I have never seen such a mass exodus on this site. It's all because RIM has absolutely nothing to offer storm users who prefer a touch screen and don't want to go to AT&T a viable upgrade. Many of them will not come back. Even the torch is already behind and it was just released.
I think the posters on here who have criticized RIM for not leaking any phone info. are right on the $. They can tease a tablet that was months away from being released, but they can't offer any info. to give hope to phone buyers this holiday season. Either they are so far behind that a real storm 3 will not be released until the spring and it is just too far out to tease or they are just out of it/obsessed with their playbook. Many blackberry users that I know and work with are not waiting for the playbook. They are all getting ipads this holiday season anyway. If the iphone releases on verizon in January without a viable new blackberry to upgrade to I think RIM is in real trouble on verizon. They are already becoming a non-factor on that carrier and it is too big of a carrier to ignore. They will be relegated to simple business phones for hard-core business users. Maybe that has served them well in the past, but I have seen my field (law, which has been a traditional all blackberry field) go from almost 100% blackberry to 50% blackberry and 50% something else (android and iphone) in only the past year. Rather than buy a blackberry for an employee firms are encouraging lawyers to get their own phone, choose what they want, and then connect it via exchange to the firms email. The "consumer" is walking into verizon and making the choice, not the business. They are being lured away by shiny new droids and iphones that have cool apps, great cameras and awesome screens. The old saying "my blackberry just works, it does what I need it to" goes right out the window when they see what android and iphones can do. They have told me that considering what they pay for data a blackberry seems like a waste of $ compared to an android device. Some developers are starting to ignore blackberry altogether. That is why an app that is free in android costs $4-$6 in app world.