[guerllamo7]

Wow. how things change.

I currently have the Bold 9930 and just love it. All of you that have one know why so I won't go into it.

The minister at my church is leaving for a mission in Africa on Friday. She had an older BlackBerry and gave up and got an iPhone4 about six months ago. She, for all her wisdom is absolutely not a techie. When she learned that her phone was not a world phone and could not take it with her she asked for a loaner on Verizon. She got a BlackBerry.

I was relieved she would have this device because I knew she could swap batteries and I because I could set it up for her. You know, the usual:

With the new Bold (my previous phone was the Torch1), we can easily:

1.teach her and her church contact to monitor the location of her phone if it is lost. Just log into BlackBerry / software / BlackBerry Protect and viola! Phone located/wiped/whatever you need.

2.Set her up with a shared DropBox so she could drop the moments she captures is pictures and videos with the church community.

3. Set up her facebook, flashlight app, map, BBM, and e-mail contacts.

4. R conveniece key set to camera, L convenience key set to flashlight.

5. Showed her how to send a discrete distress call/e-mail with map location if she runs into trouble in Nigeria.

Pretty simple stuff, right? yeah, when I spoke to her on the phone, she managed to find out what kind of battery she had, so I picked her up a spare, but did not even know the model of the phone. However, she said it was one of the newer ones.

As I drove to the church to meet her and help her get set-up, I was hoping that newer meant one of the new OS7 capable curves or something relatively new. However, what I found was an old Tour. Yeah the 3.2 MP camera took great pictures but everything else was just shocking to me.

The trackball was slow and unresponsive, the screens would move slowly and even the icons were just archaic. I actually had one and left BlackBerry due to frustration with crashes (I came back for the Torch1 and happily jumped on the Bold 9930) but I really had forgotten just what I had left.

Going from the beautiful and slick Bold 9930, which I've set up in my car with NFC tags, the awesome mapping features of the latest BlackBerry, the super customizable SCM shortcuts (I can do four things with my convenience key and three more with my spacebar), the fluid liquid graphics and much, much improved UI and menus and user experience I had truly forgotten what life was like with the old BlackBerry phones.

I stared in disbelief at the Tour. How could my beautiful phone evolve from this other thing? How could that have ever been a flagship phone? I actually caught myself trying to touch the screen out of habit with my 9930.

I have to say, it became clear to me why BlackBerry had lost so much market share to apple and others with easier to use devices. Sure, even then the keyboard was very nice and the e-mail and BBM I set up was absolutely the best. But everything else just shocked me.

I'm glad BlackBerry finally stepped up and produced a great phone. I have tried several devices and I came back to BlackBerry and truly love my phone more than any other device out there. But, can I blame people that had that old phone for leaving? No I can't.

I am glad that our minister is taking a BlackBerry because if your life depends on making that call or reaching someone quickly, even that old BlackBerry is among the best today. They can swap batteries, consume less power and data than others and it is backed by BlackBerry servers (which despite the last outage has a phenomenal performance record). But, in the U.S. if your battery dies and you can't swap out or if you message gets there 15 minutes later and it is not encrypted with ultra secure servers, so what?

I think RIM finally delivered a beautiful and awesome phone IMO but after setting up her phone I just can't blame people for wanting to try other devices. It was an interesting experience.

RIM has come a long way and they now have devices that are truly amazing but when I tell one of those former BlackBerry users about it, they often think back to the old device they had and I just can't blame them.

I believe some former BlackBerry users will come back to BlackBerry if they just take a look at them but I don't know if they will. I wish RIM could just swap out all the old phones with the new OS7 devices.

I would say that RIM now has a very nice line-up of devices. However, each device has its own strengths and weaknesses (yes, BlackBerry, Apple and Google phone all have weaknesses and strengths) so it comes down to personal choice. I still believe that the Bold 9930 is the best for me but for Reverend Lisa it is actually an iPhone and for my lawyer friend Craig, it is a droid.

If you like the phone you have, it is the right one for you.

[grahamf]

Ever since the iPhone was released RIM had been in kinda a panic mode where there were major growing pains moving from their antiquated (but stable and well-proven) OS 4.

It's good to see that BB7 is now nearly as stable as it used to be.

[rrrebo]

I don't think the Tour was ever considered a flagship device. Certainly not after release day.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[kbz1960]

Makes want to try a new one, I have a tour yet but none of the problems you hear and stated about them. But yes it us an underwhelming phone that just gets the job done.

My upgrade is coming soon!

[guerllamo7]

Yeah, hey guys, I'm not picking on the Tour. Just sharing what was really a shocking realization for me.

I love my Bold and I think BlackBerry keeps up with the rest from here. But, although many people say RIM is not innovating I would say they are leaping and transforming their user experience.

Truly nice devices on the OS7 lineup.

[condemned]

OS7 is definitely a step in the right direction. I had a Curve a couple years ago and didn't care much for it. But the liquid graphics have definitely helped BB as well as the new browser.

[ichat]

If there is any other device in the world which can do all this stuff and this fast, smack me.
Truly 9930 is great and helps a lot of people do what they need to, fast.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[southlander]

If there is any other device in the world which can do all this stuff and this fast, smack me.

Truly 9930 is great and helps a lot of people do what they need to, fast.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Yeah. One big issue now for RIM is just perception. The 99xx phones are great and certainly suitable for what many many people need from a phone. Not what they first think they need, and then later realize, eh not so much, but the real solid functions built around messaging, notifications, etc.

Alas word of mouth has to serve RIM well in this respect. I know everyone I show the 9930 off to is very impressed. But that's not enough. And RIM's not shown it can change perceptions through advertising all that well.


Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk

[kbz1960]

Yeah, hey guys, I'm not picking on the Tour. Just sharing what was really a shocking realization for me.

I love my Bold and I think BlackBerry keeps up with the rest from here. But, although many people say RIM is not innovating I would say they are leaping and transforming their user experience.

Truly nice devices on the OS7 lineup.

LOL it's no problem the tour has been picked on plenty.

[ichat]

LOL it's no problem the tour has been picked on plenty.

Hey the tour helped me a lot for traveling. I now have 9930 which is world phone anyway you have to admit, Tour has one of the sexiest looks...........

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com