5 Reasons Why You Should Ditch Your Blackberry Right Now!

In 2003 if you wanted a smartphone you had precious few options and of those few options only two were worth your money or time. The two premier smartphone platforms at the time were Palm and Blackberry. This post isn't meant to document the rise and fall of Blackberry as a formidable smartphone platform, many journalists more experienced and with much more resources than myself have dedicated articles and feature stories to the topic. This post rather will explain why (although the Blackberry certainly set a new standard for mobile device functionality and usability) in 2012 using a Blackberry isn't a smart choice.

‍ONE E-Mail (Contacts and Calendar)E-mail used to be the Blackberry's "killer feature", it was the reason you got a Blackberry. They had the first widely adopted infrastructure that enabled usable mobile e-mail. Nowadays with so many widely supported e-mail platforms, mobile e-mail, calendar and contact syncing options are often much better on other platforms, like Gmail/Google Apps on Android or Microsoft Exchange on iOS.

Syncing data with a phone should be really easy, but syncing e-mail, contacts and calendar data wirelessly to Blackberry's can be a bit of a chore if your phone wasn't configured and given to you by your IT department. A part of the reason Blackberry's gained such a strong following in government and corporations is because they can be controlled so tightly by the organizations themselves. This doesn't translate as well if you're a personal user however. Most Blackberry users I come across are still plugging their phones into their PC's in order to sync contact and calendar information. The truth is that iPhone and Android phones make it much more easier to sync your e-mail, contacts and calendar information wirelessly. In the age of the internet, Bluetooth and WiFi the only time your phone should be plugged it is to charge it.

‍TWO MessagingBBM was the gold standard of mobile messaging. Better than SMS because it didn't count again your plans SMS allotment, it was faster and it gave indication that your message had been delivered and read. Again competitors now have similar or better alternatives. Messaging apps and services like WhatsApp provides a cross-platform alternative. Android phones have Google Talk and iOS devices have iMessage. BBM is no longer the only game in town and services like WhatsApp, Touch and Kik make it easier to break that BBM addiction.

‍THREE DevicesBlackberry devices have amazing keyboards but thats where the praise for their devices stop. Blackberry's look and work the same way they've  looked and worked since before the 21st century, and while that would be fine if the world of technology hadn't progressed at all that isn't the case. RIM is still hasn't made a good full touchscreen phone and their devices in general are utilitarian and uninspired (except for this one which was designed by somebody else). If you want a little more variety I can almost guarantee that there's an Android or iPhone with your name on it and it probably has a much better screen.

‍FOUR MediaBlackberry's aren't great media devices, mainly because of the small letterbox screens but also because of the lack of apps available for the platform (more on that later). I read the first two Lord of the Rings books on a Palm m100 and when I had a Blackberry phone reading was completely out of the question and that's just reading. Syncing and managing music with a Blackberry is an "ok" experience at best and there are virtually no games especially when compared to Android and iOS. If you don't want or need your phone to be your music/video/game player then you'll be fine but you've been warned.

‍FIVE Apps"There's an App for that." doesn't apply to Blackberry's; most apps are made for iOS (the operating system on the iPhone and iPad) or Android. The fact is that iOS and Android have way more apps available. This means that you can get a considerably lot more done with and iOS/Android because there so many more apps that allow you to do so many more things.

‍THE CAVEAT The one circumstance I can justify the use of a Blackberry as a personal device is developing countries where mobile carriers tend to have much more affordable plans for Blackberry devices than for Android and iPhone devices. In this case having a Blackberry probably makes more financial sense, here in that states however carriers sometimes charge more for Blackberry specific services.