Blackberry Or Raspberry?

By Author: Clive Simpkins
Total Articles: 6
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Blackberry or Raspberry?

Could it possibly be that we gullible South African widget-lovers are being seduced into buying Blackberry personal digital assistants (PDAs) because someone didn't anticipate the popularity and swift uptake of 3G technology? 3G for those not yet in the know is wireless, always-up broadband (high speed) Internet and e-mail access. I've had it since inception. It's getting better all the time. How otherwise, is it possible for major marketers to be throwing huge amounts of advertising money at the Blackberry? Do they know something we don't?

Being a compulsive early-adopter of technology, I've long bewailed my fate as an unwilling guinea pig when it comes to debugging new anything. On the PDA front, I kicked off with a Qtek 1010 which was in the RSA, the first PDA-cum mobile phone. It was a sturdy, slippery, heavy handful. Not bad ergonomics and incredibly useful, even if you did have to keep soft rebooting because its tiny brain (a.k.a. processor) got addled by the least complexity.

When the next generation (loosely known as the Qtek 2020 but not branded as such) appeared ...
... in SA, yours truly dutifully upgraded to the rebranded i-mate PDA. Only to find myself lumbered with a much sexier looking device, lighter, more functionality, much vaunted 400 MHZ processor and a host of problems. The problems were not confined to me, but to a number of close associates and even an audience of patients waiting in the Rosebank Clinic emergency room. As previously mentioned, Leaf Wireless, the power behind i-mate in South Africa, swapped out the two failed instruments I'd been through, for a later generation, the PDA2K. This baby, still with 400 MHZ processor, is quad band, Wi-fi, bluetooth, has still and video camera, and a host of other really useful bells and whistles. It runs on Microsoft Windows CE. I've found it to behave flawlessly, although two business peers with the device swear they'll not go i-mate again.

But let's look at the emerging scenario: South African Mobile Network Provider MTN (I thought) ‘launched' the Blackberry a few months ago. I never heard more about it. Suddenly, Vodacom ‘launches' Blackberry with double page Sunday media spreads as a ‘first in South Africa'. How the Advertising Standards Authority didn't have someone getting their knickers in a twist over that one, I dunno.

The Vodaworld magazine received by me from South African GSM Network Provider Vodacom a while back features the Blackberry in two flavours on its front cover. But here's the rub: The ‘editorial' by Vodacom Group CEO, Alan Knott-Craig, that visionary maverick wasted on majority-shareholder Telkom, and fresh back from the 3GSM World Congress says this, quote: ‘My instructions to my team are to accelerate the roll out of 3G for Vodacom customers. Build and build big! Do not try to second-guess what our customers will do with the bandwidth - they will use it.' Unquote. Even higher speeds will be available via HSDPA, a 3G enhancement.

So, why the Blackberry? Darned if I know! Why on earth would you want to purchase a PDA at present that appears from the advertising and product blurb to be little more than a fairly incompetent e-mail forwarding machine?

About the Author Clive is a marketing and communications strategist and published book author. His speciality is facilitating sustainable change in individuals and organizations. Website: www.imbizo.com