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Black Sheep Blackberry Blackballed By Business
Hugh Pickens writes "Nicole Perlroth writes that the BlackBerry, once proudly carried by the high-powered and the elite, has become a magnet for mockery and derision from those with iPhones and the latest Android phones. as Research in Motion clings to less than 5 percent of the smartphone market — down from a dominating 50 percent just three years ago. One of the first steps Marissa Mayer took as Yahoo's newly appointed chief executive to remake the company's stodgy image was to trade in employees' BlackBerrys for iPhones and Androids and although BlackBerrys may still linger in Washington, Wall Street and the legal profession, in Silicon Valley they are as rare as a necktie. BlackBerry outcasts say that, increasingly, they suffer from shame and public humiliation as they watch their counterparts mingle on social networking apps that are not available to them, take higher-resolution photos, and effortlessly navigate streets — and the Internet — with better GPS and faster browsing."
What a content-free mess of an article that was. First, there's very little that iPhone or Android users can do that BB users can't do. What major functions are missing? "Social networking apps"? Like what? Which ones?
Second, if your main reason for wanting to switch phones is because people make fun of you, then it's highly likely that NONE of you actually know how to use your damned devices. My 6 year old Nokia can do most of the things that an iPhone can do.
I use SSL, but I certainly dont trust if it the entitiy Im worried about is the government. SSL has gigantic flaws that are widely recognized; one is that the signing authorities tend to be incompetent, and one bad authority can completely wreck your day if someone wants to spy on you.
_I_ dont have problems remembering my web password, but apparently you dont do IT support in any capacity that has you dealing with users on a regular basis. Some of them-- particularly those who dont have to care because of their position-- have that problem.
Finally, we see the issue - you have a phone you don' t like, so it must be someone else's fault.
The security issues and the setup issues arent "my phone" problems, theyre inherent problems with active sync. Just because you declare "its not THAT much more finicky or insecure" doesnt get rid of the real issues: Per-device keys are simply better in a corporate environment than SSL which requires you to either remove trusted roots from each device or else trust every public root authority out there. Which, I believe, includes China.
Youll note that India doesnt seem to have issues with ActiveSync email spying; its only Blackberry theyre getting pissed off at, because you simply cannot intercept BES traffic.
Its also interesting that people loudly proclaim how great Android is, then when I point out how laughably bad the Motorola Admiral (touted as a business phone) is, they say "well, all OTHER androids are great". Wonderful, so is there some whitelist of the Android phones that DONT suck at business use?