SHERRIF ARPAIO
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 25, 2010
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Rachel Crosby speaks about her BlackBerry phone the way someone might speak of an embarrassing relative.
Im ashamed of it, said Ms. Crosby, a Los Angeles sales representative who said she had stopped pulling out her BlackBerry at cocktail parties and conferences. In meetings, she says she hides her BlackBerry beneath her iPad for fear clients will see it and judge her.
The BlackBerry was once proudly carried by the high-powered and the elite, but those who still hold one today say the device has become a magnet for mockery and derision from those with iPhones and the latest Android phones. Research in Motion may still be successful selling BlackBerrys in countries like Africa, India and Indonesia, but in the United States the company is clinging to less than 5 percent of the smartphone market down from a dominating 50 percent just three years ago. The companys future all depends on a much-delayed new phone coming next year; meanwhile RIM recorded a net loss of $753 million in the first half of the year compared with a profit of more than $1 billion a year earlier.
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. More indignity comes in having to outsource tasks like getting directions, booking travel, making restaurant reservations and looking up sports scores to their exasperated iPhone and Android-carting partners, friends and colleagues.
After eight years with a BlackBerry, Mr. Mindel said he just joined the wait list for the iPhone 5. When it arrives, he said, "Im considering removing my BlackBerry battery, pouring in cement, and using the BlackBerry as an actual paperweight.
By NICOLE PERLROTH | New York Times Tue, Oct 16, 2012 10:48 AM EDT
