Another CrackBerry Defender

So I was watching a BlackBerry Storm commercial recently. The voice talking about it is eager to say clearly that it's a 'touch-screen BlackBerry'.

To that, I point out that that's the whole selling point of the Storm. It's for people who are afraid to get the iPhone due to fear-mongering from Apple's enemies because they think it's not good for business. If they hear about a 'touch-screen BlackBerry', they're immediately going to buy that because the brand name "BlackBerry" is synonymous with business. That means that the Storm must be good for business, just because it has the BlackBerry name slapped on it. The Storm doesn't deserve this label, because it suffers from the same problems iPhone does, so there's no way you can call it 'better' for business. But most consumers aren't willing to do enough research to figure that out, they just immediately buy them because they think it will fix all of iPhone's 'problems'.

So when I point this out, BlackBerry defenders immediately try to tell me that it's the same thing with iPhone; "People only buy iPhone because it has an Apple logo on it and it begins with an 'i'." "Really? I don't see any of that." I respond.

"Oh come on, what about all those freaks sitting in line for the iPhone before it even comes out, never having touched one before?"

Uh, yeah, there are those people. We have established that. There are people who are insanely obsessed with anything Apple-related. But what Microsoft, Linux, and now BlackBerry junkies like to do is pretend that EVERYBODY who uses Mac and iPhone are these freaks. They try to label an entire customer base. Look at it this way: do you really think those people who stand in line for weeks, peeing in bottles, eating junk food, and not showering until their product comes out... Do you really think they make up 90% of the iPhone customer base? Or even 50%? Or even 10%? I don't think it would even make up 1%. But Storm defenders like to pretend that 90% of Apple users are absolute junkies who can't get over their obsession with Steve Jobs. They do this because it gives them a false sense of self-righteousness.

If that's not feasible, then look at it this way: I have a friend whose family uses mostly Macs, and one member of the family has an iPhone. Did they wait in line to get the new iPhone for weeks like maniacs? Of course not. They're just regular consumers who chose what they thought were more powerful products.

If I wanted to, I could point to this emerging group of BlackBerry users who are literally addicted to it and can't stand being away from it, and I could say that's what all BlackBerry users are like. But that wouldn't be true at all.

So to make a long story short, which I'm not doing right now, iPhone's main customer base bought the phone because they thought it was an interesting change in the way mobile phones are made that they wanted to try out. They didn't buy it just because of its Apple logo.

However, the BlackBerry Storm has been getting very bad reviews (hopefully we've established that). The only reason I can imagine people would want to get the Storm is because it's a BlackBerry, which is supposedly better with business. They're falling into a trap, because ironically, the iPhone is better with business than the Storm is. I say if you want a BlackBerry, the Bold is the best way to go. If you want a BlackBerry, stick with what they're good at: plastic keyboards.

-Derek