Another rant- I hate Blackberry!

[TheForce]

Friday, my wife who is required by employer to own a Blackberry received notice of some changes to company policy. They do pay us a stipend which only pays for the BB service not the cell phone charges so it represents about 50% of our monthly bill for the BB phone. So on Friday she gets this notice that beginning next week a whole new level of security restrictions are going to apply to her phone. There are quite a few but two of them are extremely troublesome, IMO.

1. The phone will require a new security password to operate. The password will require special characters and be changed every 30 days. It will have to be 8 characters minimum of numbers letters and one special character like @

2. You will have 5 attempts to unlock your phone. After 5 failed attempts, your phone will have it's database erased and will require a new load of the OS by IT to reinstate it. Your phone will lock requiring the entry of the password every 15 minutes. How can they legally brick a person's personal phone like that? What about emergency use that will be suspended?

Later in the year we were told that the company will be supplying company phones and the stipend will end. I already have her replacement an LG env3. She'll have to carry 2 phones because they are planning an employee audit system to prevent personal use of the company phone.


I knew BB was a good push e-mail system but never knew BB allowed the IT people to push OS software changes to a persons private phone like they plan to do.

 

[kb7oeb]

If you don't want to give control over your blackberry to the IT department don't connect it to their BES (blackberry enterprise server). Being connected to a BES also allows them to read any text messaging and read phone logs. If you were getting the corporate email via IMAP they would not be able to change any of your phone settings.

Them switching to company provided blackberries sounds much better to me if they are going to force such security. Where I work we do not allow personally owned blackberries on our BES because we don't want to be responsible for their personal property.

Many of these features are offered by exchange and windows mobile, its normal for enterprise level devices.

 

[Cowchip]

We have similar conditions on the BB phones we use at work with a few differences:

The password is only four characters and doesn't require any special symbols or other syntax.

We have a limit of 10 incorrect password entries before it is formatted. It will give you a warning message when you get close to the 10th attempt.


I don't know why your frustration is with Blackberry, as the title of this thread indicates, because it is your wife's IT policy that is pushing these conditions.

 

[TheForce]

Explanations-

I hate BB because of the phone design and it is just difficult to do anything on it. She just wants a simple phone with e-mail but the company required her to use this phone which we had to buy. It was the one specified.
The new company phone when they get them sometime this summer they expect will be a windows phone on exchange server. They already announced it so it's official, BB is being dropped. A large part of the company is switching this year to windows 7 too.
When we first got the BB I programmed our e-mail and the company's e-mail and it still was an awkward device, vs her old ( 2 years ago) touch screen windows mobile phone. But after the company IT began pushing changes all it did was make the BB even more awkward to use. I pay for the damn thing and I can't even answer a call on it anymore. The new changes will just make it worse. My wife says most of her clients get sent to voice mail before she can clear the phone to answer. When our daughter calls, she now calls me and has me tell my wife to return the call. Between the BB's awkward form factor and the company's unbearable restrictions which exacerbate the negatives of the phone, it is just plain aggravating.

 

[truckracer]

sounds crappy...i hate blackberry phones anyway..they are the most over hyped smart phones in history.

 

[DetFan]

sounds crappy...i hate blackberry phones anyway..they are the most over hyped smart phones in history.

Most used,maybe, but over hyped? Iphone perhaps?

 

[Ronnie-]

I guess everyone is different. Personally, I prefer blackberry to any other type that I have owned, including winmo, iphone, and android (at least so far, android has great promise). I am not saying that those are bad by any means, they all have their pluses.

For me though, BB is hard to beat.

 

[pro96]

I agree with the topics title, I hate BB

 

[TheForce]

I think if she had my htc the corporate restrictions would be tolerable because when I need to enter any long fancy PW, I can do it with a built in PW manager. It takes me two memorized special key strokes to enter a 12 digit complex PW to log into one of my accounts from the htc. Her BB doesn't have that so the more robust the IT goofballs at her company try to make the PW entry, the more difficult it is with BB.

 

[HIFI]

Most used,maybe, but over hyped? Iphone perhaps?

I guess everyone is different. Personally, I prefer blackberry to any other type that I have owned, including winmo, iphone, and android (at least so far, android has great promise). I am not saying that those are bad by any means, they all have their pluses.

For me though, BB is hard to beat.

agreed! they can have my BB when they pry it from my cold dead hand!

 

[truckracer]

i have had the iphone 3G, 3GS, blackberry tour 9630. for me personally the iphones beat the berry hands down. the virtual keyboard on the iphone is so much easier for me to use. i can type much better on the landscape keyboard on the iphone, iphone has more available apps.

the blackberry had the best battery life.

 

[Fiachra]

These restrictions and frustrations are being implemented by your IT Gurus and the company's Blackberry Enterprise Server that they control within their IT Dept. It is not the fault of Blackberry.

I have an 8900 with a data plan that I pay for out of my pocket. I would have been allowed to get onto the BES at the company I work for but I refused. They do these things to safeguard their information that could get into the wrong hands.

Thing is that all of your contacts and the like are stored in their BES system as well as your phone. Via their BES they can wipe your phone any time they want. They do not pay any portion of my charges. I did not want them to have access to my phone information so I said no. If they were paying half I may have considered it.

 

[Ronnie-]

i have had the iphone 3G, 3GS, blackberry tour 9630. for me personally the iphones beat the berry hands down. the virtual keyboard on the iphone is so much easier for me to use. i can type much better on the landscape keyboard on the iphone, iphone has more available apps.

the blackberry had the best battery life.

For a virtual keyboard, the Iphone is hard to beat (the Hero would be just as nice if it had a larger screen IMO). For me though, I am still much faster, with fewer mistakes on my berry.

The iphone does win apps hands down, with android coming on fast. Berry has made some improvements in this area though.

 

[diogen]

These restrictions and frustrations are being implemented by your IT Gurus...

And this very abilities - to remotely control every aspect of the device - made BB the success they are...
Before the smartphone was a cell market segment there was RIM that ruled the business handheld world, running on Java...

Diogen.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

For a virtual keyboard, the Iphone is hard to beat (the Hero would be just as nice if it had a larger screen IMO). For me though, I am still much faster, with fewer mistakes on my berry.

The iphone does win apps hands down, with android coming on fast. Berry has made some improvements in this area though.

I like the virtual keyboard on the Droid just as much as the one on the iPhone/iPod Touch. actually, I like it better. At least in landscape mode.

Still, the keyboard on my old Treo 700p/755p was still the best of anything I have ever used.

 

[cybok0]

I love my blackberry, my sister hates hers, her work controls everything on hers.

 

[Ronnie-]

I like the virtual keyboard on the Droid just as much as the one on the iPhone/iPod Touch. actually, I like it better. At least in landscape mode.

Still, the keyboard on my old Treo 700p/755p was still the best of anything I have ever used.

Yeah I had heard that the droid has a great virtual keyboard, never had a chance to use one though.

 

[TheForce]

Rather than start a new thread- thought I'd just continue this one:

Seems RIM is having a tough time in the battle between Android and iphone.

Why Blackberry users will defect
12:01a ET March 31, 2010 (MarketWatch)

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Call it a matter of touch-screen envy, but many BlackBerry users are starting to feel the 24-month-contract itch.

And they're willing to switch to Apple Inc.'s iPhone or Google Inc.'s Nexus One, according to a recent study.

Conducted by the online market researchers Crowd Science, the survey results show that Research In Motion BlackBerry users are more likely to abandon the brand than iPhone or Android users. When asked of the likelihood of buying a particular brand of cell phone or smartphone if the purchase was made the following day, 39% of BlackBerry owners said they "definitely or probably would" nab an iPhone. And roughly one-third of the participants claimed they'd snatch up an Android phone.

Meanwhile, the fierce Google-Apple war seems to have bled into the user base.

An overwhelming majority of iPhone users -- 92% -- would likely stay loyal to the Apple device, and only a tad fewer Android owners -- 87% -- made a similar claim.

However, Apple zealots who unleash a fervent hatred for opposing teams may have met their indignant match. While 15% of iPhone users "definitely or probably would not" recommend an Android device, a whopping 45% of Android users would never dare give Steve Jobs' baby a thumbs up. Whether that's a product of outsider's scorn or buyer's remorse, the study didn't pose the question.

But as the battle between Apple and Google rages on, BlackBerry users look on with a degree of envy.

Despite commanding a hefty lead over the iPhone in the smartphone market share -- 42% versus 25%, respectively -- the numbers for RIM have begun to drop, along with Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Palm.

According to comScore, RIM's market share dropped a percentage point in the fourth quarter of 2009 from the third quarter, and Apple's rose 1.2%. PCWorld's Tony Bradley calculated that, given the same rate of rise and decline, Apple could surpass RIMM's market share by February 2012. And buoyed by the success of the Motorola Droid, Android showed the biggest gains -- rising 2.7% to 5.2%.

Crowd Science Chief Executive John Martin addressed the study in the company blog. "These results show that the restlessness of BlackBerry users with their current brand hasn't just been driven by the allure of iPhone." He added, "Rather, BlackBerry as a brand just isn't garnering the loyalty seen with other mobile operating systems."

So what's the allure of the competitors? Why are BlackBerry users more willing to jump ship?

Blackberry has long been the choice of tech-savvy executives who are wirelessly tethered to their jobs. But as evidenced in the study, only 7% of BlackBerry owners still use their device exclusively for work. For years, the smartphone has ceased to be merely associated with work -- an evolution that Apple played a large role in influencing. However, the BlackBerrys, the Palm Treos, and the Windows Mobile devices never successfully adopted the veneer of "recreational smartphones" nearly as well as Apple or Android.

Put simply, iPhones, Droids, and Nexus Ones just look like more fun. And as the "fun factor" became a significant reason why smartphones became as popular as they did, any manufacturer still focusing on the business aspects fell out of favor with users.

What's the appeal of a physical keyboard if the iPhone can remember where you parked? Why use Microsoft Exchange when the Droid works seamlessly with Gmail -- a service more businesses are using anyway? Is there a point to waiting for a BlackBerry version of an app that has dozens of variants available in the App Store or Android Market?

Unless a new BlackBerry device sheds the brand's stodgy work image, RIMM is going to miss out on all the fun -- and customers.

 

[Rey]

i might be one of those to defect, don. the EVO will be hard to ignore.

 

[meStevo]

Blackberry really needs a complete reinvention of it's OS to remain relevant, that's the only way to remain competitive really outside of 'business only' phones.