A cellphone junkie's journey: Why BlackBerry

By Ray Nicolini

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People keep asking me “Why do you use a BlackBerry and not get an iPhone or Android phone instead?”, so I decided to write my very own story about why I use a BlackBerry. Keep in mind that the situations and opionions described are my very own and might be totally different for everyone else.

My obsession for smartphones started with a windows mobile phone, an HTC TYtN II. I got that one from Craigslist, it was used and I really only used it for playing Bejeweled, though I did like what it was capable of. Shortly after that I got my first three-year-contract, first thing I did was ordering a data plan. I realised it’s fun to explore things new to me, like mobile e-mail, mobile browsing, etc. At that time I realized that windows mobile had lots of apps and games but couldn’t really do what I wanted it to. Back then there was no real alternative to windows mobile, or let’s say I wasn’t aware of one, so I decided to go with several feature phones and kept going back and forth between regular feature phones and windows mobile. That’s when I decided to get a BlackBerry. I never heard of those before but I saw a BlackBerry 7100r at Rogers and bought it right away. It was something new, I like the idea of having a Trackwheel and most importantly: It looked really cool.

When it came in the mail, I didn’t have any idea what to do. Inserted the SIM card, booted it up and saw the question mark rising above my head. I refuse to read manuals, because I don’t think any phone should be complicated enough that one would actually need to read through the whole manual to get things going, so I just “tried out stuff”. Turned out that was a good idea, my e-mails were set up in no time, I copied my contacts and ever since then the device started doing what I actually wanted – keeping me up to date on everything. And I mean everything. Sadly enough that was long before I discovered how much fun Twitter was or even before Twitter existed. Still the phone blew my mind, I discovered themes and apps like Viigo, Facebook (actually I just signed up to Facebook because it was on my BlackBerry back then!), BlackBerry Messenger, etc.

In the following months I upgraded my phone a few times because I wanted a more comfortable keyboard. First from my beloved 7100 to a Bold 9000, which I really loved, yet I wanted more. By more I mean screen size, so I got a Storm 9520, which was capable of only EDGE on Rogers. Boy, I loved that. Later upgrading to a Bold 9700. I really dug the Trackpad and the form factor coming from a Bold 9000.

I was discovering BlackBerry 5.0 since the Bold 9000 and fell in love with it (remember: it just launched), it was all new and fresh, pretty good looking. Shortly after that I read and watched reviews that were comparing BlackBerry 5 to other smartphones OS. They talked about Windows Mobile, the all new Android, iPhone OS and others. That’s when I first felt the urge to get my hands on other phones, just to try out if they’re as good (or even better) as my BlackBerry.

Up until now I was just telling you guys, how I first came to BlackBerry and learned to love it. Now, the real phone odyssey starts. While I got all these BlackBerrys, I never really cared about any other phones for my BlackBerry always did everything what I wanted it to, although I watched and read a lot of phone reviews and was pretty interested in everything new. Well, my Bold 9700 had its time and I now have the Unreleased in Canada BlackBerry Torch 9800 Slider and I am loving it. This is where the story begins. Feel free to join me on my journey to my perfect phone and stay tuned for the next episode in the coming weeks.