[Radius]

Lol, here's another advantage to blackberry. My wife just drove for 5 miles with her pearl on top of the car. Why it didn't fall off? Luck? No. It's because the magnet in the leather pouch stuck it to the roof of the car. Beat that lol

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

The magnets are nowhere near that strong.

[belfastdispatcher]

The magnets are nowhere near that strong.

Have you tried it? You'll be surprised how strong the pull is plus the pearl is very light.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[FMB8900]

Oh, I'm not sure if anybody mentioned this feature and I can't be bothered to check but another very important feature on blackberry is UMA calling. for some people this is an essential feature. It is available on other platforms but not Android or Iphone.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

yeah UMA is a great feature, I use it, and so do my friends and family.

Even if you don't pay the extra $10 a month of unlimited calling, you can still use UMA in areas low in signal and use your minutes.

For example, if im in an area where there is low low signal, or if i'm in the basement of a building where there no signal at all, I can just connect through WiFi, and WALLA!! I have a FULL signal and can make calls and send texts through UMA.

It's great!!

[FMB8900]

huh...matt ended up being an articulate alby...whodu thunk it...

an articulate troll eh? ... hehe

[FMB8900]

Lol, here's another advantage to blackberry. My wife just drove for 5 miles with her pearl on top of the car. Why it didn't fall off? Luck? No. It's because the magnet in the leather pouch stuck it to the roof of the car. Beat that lol

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

haha thats hilarious

just the OEM cases and their sleeper magnets are advantages themselves.

they save battery life, bring your messages right up as soon as you take it out of the case.

and the option to automatically answer and hang up phone calls. its awesome.

[BigBadWulf]

Damn! I thought I was the wolf in sheep's clothing around here. I knew I smelled a rat, and I'm proud of all of us for persisting with class. Well, mostly

[gregorylkelly]

Quality physical keyboard.

That is what I was going to say. No matter what any of the other devices can do, none of them have a keyboard have a good as the Blackberry keyboard. Most of them are Touch Screen which is not great for emailing and texting. No matter how good you are at typing on a touch screen device, it will never be as good as the Blackberry keyboard. That reason alone is why I don't see myself ever leaving Blackberry (at least no time soon).

Now, add that keyboard to a touch screen device (Slider and the possible Touchscreen Bold if it ever comes out) and you have the best of both worlds. I don't love the look of the Slider, but unlike some people, I don't care what my phone looks like, I care how it operates. A touch screen phone with a BB keyboard is perfection, imo.

[weblou]

Can't believe Matt didn't even give us 1 unique feature the Android platform has. I think you will have better luck selling your clients to a blackberry then anything else.... At least you could say BBM/Push/Pin to Pin are pretty unique lol

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[noized77]

Man, I think you guys scared him away. One less fanboy to worry about i guess.

[alby4ever]

I'm giving up. Not because I can't step to the challenge, but because this question is being asked with any seriousness at all means that I'm in the wrong forum. It's out of exasperation rather than defeat. Instead of relying on me to tell you what features the iPhone and Android bring to the cellular market, how about reading technical articles and blogs on places like Engadget, Wired, etc., and then take a look at the cellular market share, and then actually use one. I've already done my part; I've thoroughly used BlackBerrys, iPhones, and Android phones, and I've obviously made my own decision based on user experience and, most importantly of all, facts.

In hindsight, I don't think I should've posed this on CrackBerry as there's just way too much bias, along with a minor but unhealthy dose of chugging the BlackBerry Kool-Aid while simultaneously being ignorant of other devices, how they operate, and what they offer the end-user. It's like a person who vehemently stands by the fact that Burger King is the absolute best fast-food chain restaurant there is, listing unique foods they offer like "hamburgers" and "french fries," while never having stepped foot inside of a McDonald's or a Wendy's, let alone tried their food.

To those who answered and offered insight, I appreciate it! Thank you very much. I learned some things that I did not know prior to posting, which is a common experience for me on CrackBerry, and why I keep coming back. And to those who've chosen a BlackBerry over other options out there based on familiarity, the keyboard, BES integration, BBM, etc., that's awesome. I'm glad you enjoy your phone. To those who equate iPhones and Androids as fragile toys that amount to nothing more than a fad, you're very seriously out of your mind.

QFT. And ditto.

[Standa]

I like simple, fast and useful GUI and hw buttons. This is very useful combination. And is there any other way? No, just BlackBerry. Other companies are making a tons of cool shiny devices, where you need to scroll a lot of with your fingers to get some informations you want. Everything I do with phone is much quicker with BlackBerry. I know: no effects, no shining edges, no animations - no cool, but I have my phone for using, not for style :-)
And what are the next advantages of BB? Display readable on sun light, very good battery life - other smart platforms cannot beat it and best little qwerty keyboard I have ever used.
There is a lot of disadvantages too ofcourse: only one RSS reader which is able to show Czech diacritics, doesn't exist offline navigation and no good web browser. But for navigation and browsing I have HTC Athena, so it is no so big problem for me.

[Simba501]

BB is not for everyone. If you want a workhorse with great battery life, that gets the job done, get a BB.

My feelings exactly. In the recent slew of devices, battery life isn't comparable, in my experience. Blackberry is just what I quoted from the above member, a workhorse with great battery life, that gets the job done.

EDIT: I have nothing against the recently released devices (EVO, iPhone 4, etc.). I think they're beastly. I just think BB is best for what I need in my smartphone.

[Simba501]

Once upon a time, if you needed to send/receive emails from your phone frequently, or if your email was managed via an Exchange server, then BlackBerry was the obvious choice. Coupled with BIS/BES servers, BlackBerry was truly the market leader in enterprise messaging solutions from small to large businesses worldwide. Later in the game, as we all know, BlackBerry began intentionally marketing to residential consumers by offering applications along with APIs to write your own applications, and the Blackberry Storm was obviously their answer to the touchscreen smartphone market in an attempt to compete.

Here's my question -- It's now June of 2010. Let's say you're a salesman for RIM. I walk into the store. I lay down a Droid Incredible and an Apple iPhone and ask you what, with the exception of BlackBerry Messenger and pin-to-pin PINGs, can the BlackBerry do that the iPhone or my HTC Droid Incredible cannot? I touched upon this a bit in a few posts I made earlier which are here and here. What would you say to me?

I own a BlackBerry Curve 8310 for work, and I used to own a BlackBerry Storm 9530. I'm very familiar with the BlackBerry OS and their various devices. I've upgraded OSs, I've intentionally bricked and rebuilt them, I've done custom modifications, I've taken over managing the BES server at work when needed... what I'm saying is that I'm not ignorant to BlackBerry, and I'm coming from an informed place. And I really, truly feel that that BlackBerry is beginning a path to irrelevance. Everything they once had a stronghold on is now being done by others, and being done better, unless I'm mistaken, and they do offer something(s) unique. If that's the case, what am I missing? What is the reason, at this point, that somebody would choose a BlackBerry over a Droid or an iPhone, other than being uncomfortable with change?

As a reference point, I am now an HTC Droid Incredible owner.

P.S. - If I gave any indication that I am trolling, I promise that I am not! I am genuinely curious about the BlackBerry community's feelings on the topic of the relevance of BlackBerry in the current smartphone market.

Good post. One of the few threads I've read that didn't annoy me, because people like to come here and bash Blackberry because it doesn't have the pizazz that the new OS devices are rolling out. If someone is looking for a device with a top of the line physical keyboard, great battery life, functionality, and reliability, then Blackberry is the best device. In my experience, I can't say the same for some of the newer devices.

[Simba501]

really, did you even read any of the posts above? Let me tell you what you can't do: Instant push email for 10 accounts, bbm which replaces sms and mms really, bbm groups with a shared calendar/files/photos lists etc, can't type on a physical qwerty, can't have many many shortcuts on the qwerty keyboard, can't have a light blink at you when you get a message, can't customize absolutely everything on it, can't remove battery, can't properly multitask with apps in the background doing their job not just on hold, can't remove memory and etc etc

posted from my crackberry at wapforums.crackberry.com

qft.......

Though it does appear more directed towards the iPhone platform....

[Simba501]

Try putting a bb on the counter and asking what an iphone or android phone has that a bb doesn't. And remember, you want "unique" features, not "improved" features.

The fact of the matter is, you didn't answer my question.

Having a "faster" or "better" browser is in no way a "unique" feature.

qft.......