treo vs blackberry

[gamecock24]

seems like the blackberry products are getting all the press these days. why is that?
i still learning....why would one choose a treo over a blackberry anyway?

[Blackman]

Not sure. The Treo's seem to do worlds more than BB's. My dad has one of the newest BB's and first he was all hyped on it but once I bought a Treo and he saw my friends and all they can do he wants one now. BB's are over rated and on the way out unless they step it up IMHO. I mean no camera and way fewer apps? No contest, Treo WINNER and still CHAMPION!!!

[skoenig]

A lot of people get blackberry's as part of a corporate solution. Companies like to know their employees are getting interrupted every few minutes with new mail. It helps their productivity.

Seriously though, my few brief encounters with blackberries have left me with the following observations:

- everybody seems to get addicted to the little click wheel on the side (no idea how the trackball will go down)
- there's some clever software shortcuts in the OS
- the battery life *seems* much better though I've got no direct experience with this.
- the OS *seems* more responsive and snappier
- the interface is modern looking too and makes me want to explore and mess about with it (8800)
- calls are reliable, as is bluetooth

But there it ends....there are some apps of a fairly high standard of quality but nothing, in my limited BB experience, on par with good quality Palm apps.

I'll keep my Treo thanks. The versatility alone beats everything hands down but I hope in the future Palm continues the kind of innovation which, at one point, made the Palm the defacto PDA and PalmOS the OS of choice for handheld devices.

~ Steph

[PoliceDog]

Originally Posted by Blackman

.....BB's are over rated and on the way out...

You're kidding, right?

"...on the way out..."

I'll take that bet. "Blackberry" means "business" and "corporate" and "dependable". Check out any major airport departure lounge and count BB's vs. Treos. No contest. I had a Blackberry 7280 and now have a Treo-650 which I wouldn't give up for anything; my wife has a new Blackberry. I can deal with the occasional resets, software conflicts, etc. - she can't. If a $20-million investment deal she is working on is going south, she needs to know about it _NOW_. I watch videos on my T, play games, and listen to Internet radio. She couldn't care less about those things.

[gamecock24]

thanks a ton guys...one more thing...seems like a new bbb is coming out every week these days...whereas new treos are released every 3 months or so...is this just me? hopefully 2007 will be a good year for new treos...

[TazUk]

Originally Posted by PoliceDog

Check out any major airport departure lounge and count BB's vs. Treos. No contest.

That's due to lots of large corporates investing heavily in Blackberries back when they were the only push email solution. Thinks have changed and most devices now have a push system or two so the main selling point of the BB has gone. For a company that runs Exchange internally EAS is a far more appealing solution than installing a BES, and cheaper too. It also supports a far wider range of phones covering WM5, PalmOS and Symbian. Things change, specially in IT, so I agree with Steph, BB's dominance is over

[skoenig]

There's no doubt BBs are popular and in some ways as a phone, better - hell almost any modern phone is better as a phone than a Treo - I just feel that since push email was the big thing and since push email is now deployable in a much more flexible, more platform independent and open way on other devices, including the Treo that the BB doesn't look like such an obvious winner.

If you then combine that with all the things the Treo actualy does well...it's no longer a cut a dry decision even for SME and above IT/MIS departments.

IT and MIS departments with coder (not web or Flash 'coders') can have themselves a very nice device that can be easily customised to suit their purposes.

~ Steph

[PoliceDog]

Originally Posted by TazUk

That's due to lots of large corporates investing heavily in Blackberries....

Exactly. And in these days of rampant cut-backs most of those large corporations and government agencies are not going to suddenly erase that investment just because something that we "gadget freaks" realize is better has come along. It's like steering the Queen Mary - it can be done but it happens very, very slowly.

My wife left early this morning for a meeting in Detroit. Because it is a short trip, she and other executives are no longer allowed to book Business Class; her cellphone is something that most of us here would consider "obsolete" (and she's not allowed to replace it herself). Last year, she was finally issued a BB with a colour screen. Wow!

My young daughter has a Blackberry Pearl (she won it) and it's an amazing little device. Needs a few little tweaks to make it as useful to me as a Treo, but it's getting there.

I don't think Blackberry and RIM are "down and out" just yet - and I'm still willing to take that bet.

[pool_shark]

My girlfriend has a blackberry through her job, it's what made me want a smartphone.

I looked at blackberry's vs the Q vs treo 700P vs treo 700w.
I chose the 700P because I'm use to palm devices, I like palm devices, I love the touch screen, and custom apps. You can find an app for just about anything on a palmos device.
Plus I'm a unix admin so I don't think too highly of windows.

I looked hard at the blackberry's but I honestly felt I would regret not getting the treo.

Even with the problems with bluetooth and the phone app issues I experience from time to time, I still love it.

[forgot]

Plus I'm a unix admin so I don't think too highly of windows.

I'm gonna jump in here too. A lot of people were introduced to smartphones through the BB, and a lot of corporate workers (not all of whom are "techies" or willing to do a little device research) still look to it as their device of choice. The see someone getting their email on their phone, and know the BB name from its stand as a long time leader in mobile solutions, and its TV time due to the RIM case. They call up their IT people and say "Hey, I want one of those Blackberry things". They then get what they ask for. I am by NO means saying that people in the corporate world have no clue when it comes to technology, but rather that the brand name still has its advantages.

I'm sure many of you know that I'm a big Palm OS fan (and if you don't...I'm a big Palm OS fan..) and still use many of the devices that I've had in my journey to my present 680. While I don't think that Palm should abandon their other devices and focus only on the Treo line, I do think they need to step it up a notch. New campaigns liek the ontreo site, and targeted ads are helping, but the BB's (and other devices) are still out there grabbing a huge piece of the market. I mean, we see lots of commercials and shows with people using Treo's, but how many actually say what they are and what they can do?