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I know the email, cal & contacts will be good. Its a BB. Unlike the iPhone using that shoddy mobileme.

The web will be the deal killer on the Thunder. If its not that true web experience I will have to look elsewhere for the perfect all-in-one device that suits my needs.

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A lot of people I know with full-sized Blackberries have problems with the size, but love the functionality. I went with a Pearl because I had the choice, not being required to go with a full-sized BB. I was on the plane back home 2 days ago and next to me were two full-sized BB users (don’t remember which models, but could have been the Curve). Each one said the same thing…love/hate relationship.

I had the original iPhone for 2 weeks and it went back. I just felt it was “too media-centric” for my needs, and not enough business. I thought it was horrible at managing contacts and its calendar functions weren’t as strong as my Pearl. OTOH, for what I was using it for (not music or other media, mind you), the battery seemed to blow my Pearl’s battery out of the water, and the size made it a lot nicer than owning a smart-phone the size of a Curve.

From the pix I’ve seen here on BGR and others, the Thunder / Storm / 9530 seems like it’ll be smaller and more manageable, and the more sophisticated location-specific haptic feedback will certainly be a welcome addition, as well.

Quite frankly, I’ve had AT&T, or its predecessor, Cingular / Cellular-One, since I first got a cell-phone in 1998. I haven’t had a ton of problems with their customer service, but I have noticed it seemed to take a step-backward ever since they were taken over by AT&T. Something as simple as paying my bill over-the-phone now REQUIRES I use the automated bill-pay system, which has always been problematic for me for some reason. Previously, speaking with a customer service rep at least ensured my payment was processed properly.

I’ve spoken with numerous people with every carrier and they all seem to have their problems. No carrier is perfect, and that’s the closest thing to fact I know of in this world. They all seem to want my business, and Verizon is offering to pay my service termination fees with AT&T. Since I’m more attracted to the BB Thunder than I am to the iPhone, I’m willing to give them a shot. The biggest deal for me with the switch is phone number portability. This is the only constant phone number I’ve had for the past 10 years.

So, all-in-all, from all the hype, the Thunder seems like a cool product. I give props to RIM for keeping current and offering a solid portfolio of phones to appeal to different target markets.

Oh…last point here, and this is something that I need to vent on…I don’t care what ANYONE has to say…RIM is like any other solid business, in that they’re not going after a “niche”, but rather an expanding portfolio to capture overall market share. No single phone will appeal to everyone. If RIM were stupid enough to think that a single phone would, then they wouldn’t have the Javelin, Bold, and Thunder all coming out within months of each other (supposedly, anyway).

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NO T-Mobile? NO BIG DEAL.

Verizon BEST serves our needs because we need connectivity in secure buildings and inside large ships like aircraft carriers… Because the 9530 will come with a new OS, we’ll have to certify it for use in a secure environment; so it’s unlikely to get market penetration in the DoD in the immediate future.

It is a big deal, and I’m looking forward to using one soon…

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I completely understand where you’re coming from when you say that RIM is a niche player, however you seem to be totally disregarding the millions of teenagers and young adults that walk around with Pearls and Curves with absolutely no intentions of using them for business purposes, or even PIM purposes. I know this because I happen to be a young adult myself with several friends who use BB’s simply because they like them (I, myself, use a Palm Centro, but I use it for its intended purposes). The incarnation of these two BB devices (Pearl and Curve) were genius on RIM’s part because they made what were once thought to be business-only devices appealing to nonbusiness users and the Thunder is really just an extension of that. Not to mention there are tons of actual business users out there who would like a full touchscreen device but are not willing to give up the functionality or reliability of the BB platform. The Thunder is essentially a “best of both worlds” device that can easily appeal to the typical business-focused BB users, while at the same time bringing in new users simply because of the cool factor inherently tied to any touchscreen device.

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The internet speeds are way faster than the iPhone. This makes the iPhone look like shit. come october you iPhone buyers are going to regret it.

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http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/06/06/apple_now_the_worlds_no_3_smartphone_vendor.html

I still disagree with the “Niche” statement, which makes no sense.

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Thanks

Radom poster
Aka Jdslim

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“mm… RIM called a “Niche Player”? They are the #1 smartphone maker in the world”

Unfortunately you are very mistaken. Nokia is the #1 smartphone maker in world, by far, in both volume and revenues. RIM is #1 in the US.

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WTF………..Why didn’t you credit Kevin Byrne with the pic and info?

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The one word that RIM hates to hear is “niche”, and unfortunatly thats all they’ll ever be. Granted, it’s a large niche (business), but to be a real player they’ll need to lsien to the “rest of us”, and finally build a universal UI that doesn’t take an army of IT guys to implement.

E-Mail is there forte, but what they have as a strength is quickly being whittled down by MS-Direct Push, and to a smaller extent web based e-mail services such as Google and yahoo.

Where they need to devote some attention is in their browser (probably the worst experience of all smart devices). Both iPhone and WM have great browsers in comparison.

Adding a touchscreen isn’t the answer, adding great apps is.

RIM needs to partner with the developer community to port world class applications to their platform. They need an AppStore similar to Apple’s that can make it easy for developers to get their apps onto the RIM devices. Today it’s nearly impossible to find decent apps for BlackBerry devices since there are few reliable sources. Also, RIM makes it difficult for developers to even code their apps since the SDK is so weak.

Bottom line, it’s nice that RIM will be trying out new hardware designs, but unless they invest in the software under-the-hood, they’ll continue to be a niche player.

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I love when people have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to cellular technology. CDMA is not a outdated protocol at all in fact it was designed in 1995 while GSM has been around since 1991. GSM must be so good that it has to use a CDMA for its air interface for 3G and OFDMA for 4G. Only a few small countries use CDMA? You know I wonder if you could say Japan, South Korea, India and China are small. Most of your future networks will not even be based on GSM or CDMA but on OFDMA and that can be used in LTE as well as UMB and WiMAX.

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one thing you have to consider… Verizon maybe big, etc after the Alltel acquisition, but the FACT is, CDMA is predominantly used in the US and few minor countries. There’s a reason why GSM is called Global Systems for mobile Communications. it’s the world standard and constantly evolving. CDMA, however, is an outdated protocol anyway. it was a smart choice for Bell South, SBC, Cingular and the old AT&T Wireless (now they’re all simply at&t) to adopt the GSM protocol. despite the extra costs of roaming, at least at&t thought outside of the box and made it more simple and flexible for their customers to travel outside of the US and STILL be able to use their phones; whereas, Verizon Wireless, (IF you do not have a “World Edition” branded phone) will lease out phones from their overseas partners Vodaphone for GSM-compatible phones. this is the advantage that at&t will always have over Verizon.

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