Just wanna share my thoughts.

BlackBerry, at its CORE, is an e-mail/calendar reading device which has PDA capabilities. In fact, RIM (BlackBerry manufacturer) started off with paging technology & only included telephony function after they migrated to GSM platform. Therefore, BlackBerry is meant to cater prosumers who need solution to their wireless electronic messaging needs. This also explains why BlackBerry isn't bothered/worried about other devices that offer video telephony (video call), although their latest devices support HSDPA (3.5G) because its main focus is electronic messaging.

Besides, BlackBerry is never meant to operate in isolation. Each & every device is meant to "pair" with a server that can ONLY be accessed through RIM carrier partners' wireless network (in our case, we have Maxis & Celcom) AND the user must subscribe to BIS or BES service in order to use this facility.

What is so great about this facility? Why BIS/BES? These are the most frequently asked question when people start to compare BlackBerry with other smartphones. See, if you want to receive e-mails on your smartphone, you need to get your device configured with data settings (GPRS/3G) first to set your access point to the internet. Once this is done, you have to enter your e-mail credentials, e-mail type i.e. POP3, IMAP4, Exchange etc., the incoming & outgoing server address, incoming & outgoing port, select the correct encryption type (SSL, TLS etc.) and bla bla bla... Most of the cases, user will end up wasting so much time & so many calls & end up in front of the Customer Service.

Once you are through this, surely enough you can retrieve your e-mails on your smartphone but you have to go through another process of getting connected to GPRS/3G, authenticate your credentials, checking the e-mail server & pull e-mails EACH & EVERYTIME you want to read your e-mail. AUTO-RETRIEVE? Oh yes, but your auto-retrieve will go through that process too! You can dream of leaving your smartphone to be always connected as it will drain your battery beyond your imagination (it's a bit exaggerating but you try & see for yourself). What I'm trying to say here is, for smartphone, as the configuration is stored in the device itself, all the work is done by the device. However, for BlackBerry, the server stores all the information needed to access the e-mail server, pulls the e-mails & push them to BlackBerry device and this allows user to receive e-mails instantly (delay is negligible). This is also a reason why BlackBerry battery lasts long.

Sorry, I know this reply is quite long but when it comes to BlackBerry, I can't stop typing.

Cheers!

MaxCK

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This post has been edited by maxck: May 20 2009, 11:50 AM