Help me understand : Blackberry phones.

[Baseley09]

Now, I know the BB range has around 15% of the market, but in my experience I see them much more than iPhones and Android devices, particularly with younger folk.....but I don't understand why.

I'm pretty sure I'm aware of their feature set, so why are they so popular, are they cheaper than the other obvious smart phone devices? I mean, they don't even seem to have many games, ahem.

[NW2013]

BBM seems to be the main selling point over the others for the young 'uns, an instant messenger app for groups of friends.

[FelixofMars]

I think the older curve/bold models that seem popular with the keyboard is pretty affordable to, still cheaper than Android and alot cheaper than Iphone. also they are the business users phone of choice because of the ability to remote wipe and own internal mail server I believe.

I have noticed a lot of duel phone users who tend to have a Blackberry with Iphone/android as well so one for work and one is for home use.

[Skull Commander]

I have a Blackberry and lt suits me fine. I don't play games on a phone and can't be hooped with touch screens. The battery life is also great and can last for 3-4 days, even though it's almost 2 years old.

[Lyris]

I was under the impression that they re-established themselves as a cheaper smartphone option after the iPhone came out and gained popularity with younger people as a result. Is that wrong?

[Dogg Thang]

Yes, that was my impression too. As a communication device, the Blackberry does seem to be an excellent and, now, pretty cost-effective option.

[Adrock]

BBM is the main pull for a lot of younger people as far as I'm aware.

I didn't think they went for the cheaper smartphone range, that is something HTC have been working for as far as I know.

[Fader209]

I think the main difference is the advertising from Blackberry compared with other phones, and it's aimed at the younger people. It's almost like the Iphone in terms of being separate from a standard mobile phone thanks to its branding. It's not like you hear people saying, "Have you got a Samsung?"
Reminds me of when Ipods were all the rage and people treated it as something different to an Mp3 player.

[EvilBoris]

For those kids who are on pay as you go, BBM allows for unlimited messaging which is attractive.
Prior to that there was obviously the business side of things that made it popular for execs and then because of the exclusive nature of it, those the London Adidas wearing types set them in their sights, which in turn filtered through to the rest of the chav population.

I've got a BB torch for work and I think it's awful, the email/Calender syncs up well, but other than that, it's pish.

[averybluemonkey]

Blackberry's market was the American business buyers because they had a really well integrated business e-mail solution. As Nokia upped their game to the same level it became apparant that American businesses like to deal with other American businesses and so Blackberry retained its business share. The iPhone was completely unsellable as a business phone for the first few years as it missed key features required for corporate account holders.

Blackberry tried and failed for years to make any headway in the consumer market though over the last two years some (uninformed) press from the likes of the Gadget Show and a couple of others made it appealable to teenagers who bought them without really knowing why. The phones are still an absolute pig to program for and have major performance issues from what I've heard from developers and RIM's attempt to break into other markets haven't been terribly successfull.

[Baseley09]

This is interesting thanks for the responses, we only supported BB at work as our smartphone option because of lotus notes, tho iPhone does have a lamer lotus option.

So it seems it's just because it's cheap, I don't quite get the BBM appeal though, don't you have to connect to the 3G network thus eating up your data usage, I guess that usage is low cost versus texts tho?

[EvilBoris]

I think it goes through the blackberry service, separate to your normal data usage , you used to have to pay a sub for it to be enabled