Bye Bye, BlackBerry

It was with mixed emotions that I laid down my BlackBerry and picked up a DroidX.

Bye bye, BrickBreaker. Bye bye, Blackberry Messenger.

The move was driven by equal parts device envy and the need to be on the cutting edge of communications that comes with my tech PR job – it was both a left brain and right brain decision. OK, what the the heck, the cool and fun factors too, if I were to be totally honest, after all aren’t most buying decisions, driven by emotion?

In short, some of the same reasons that compelled me to ditch whatever I was using before, a couple of years ago, and get my first BlackBerry. I had related at the time (in a January 2009 blog post) how I had gotten tired of staring at the top of my (now ex) wife’s head as she pecked away at the cute BlackBerry chicklet keyboard.

The BlackBerry was the power communications tool of high powered professionals, and, damn, I wanted (and needed) one too. Perhaps the head staring and device gap were symbols of how our marriage had eroded; perhaps my jumping on the BlackBerry bandwagon at the time was a way to get closer. At any rate, that did not work and we separated and are headed for divorce.

Strangely, my ex wife and me remain very friendly, which is hard for many people to understand. She got an iPhone not too long ago. As I sit with her sometimes, over meals, or with friends on the train, and watch the tops of their heads as they play with their iPhones and Droids, it has been hard to not get caught up in the excitement about the latest generation of smart phones.

All the slapping,pinching and tickling. The brushing, stroking the gestures – there are some definite, sexual overtones going on with these devices (or is it just me, am I a little warped? C’mon, you know the answer to that!).  They are fetishes, an obsession. All the sensory, multi-media experience they deliver, the easy online and email access, packed in one cool little device.

BlackBerry was the thing to have not too long ago. RIM somehow missed the boat on a sea change in tech, the franchise is not lost, but well on its way, at least in my opinion – just like Palm lost its way, and others before it.

I truly enjoyed BlackBerry over the years, and valued its utility. I will likely miss BrickBreaker, which I got severely addicted too. I will no doubt miss the operating environment that I got very used to as I strive to master the DroidX and its tricky multi-touch screen navigation.

But not so much, the DroidX seems like a wonderful device.

Bye bye, BlackBerry