8 Years of BlackBerry

I've been a loyal BlackBerry user since 2004.  Since then, I've had six of them (see photo below).  I finally made the decision to switch over to the iPhone 4s this month.  The iPhone is a significantly superior product.  The operating system is much slicker and the apps are phenomenal.

Apple's App Store took the PDA marketplace to a place that RIM never imagined it would go.  As evidence of this, the last BlackBerry I bought didn't even come with the BlackBerry app store installed.  You had to go out to the web and do a tedious installation process to start buying apps.

All of that said, I'm one of the few that believes BlackBerry is here to stay (though it may require an acquisition by a larger player).  The new BlackBerrys are superior devices for corporate users and more and employees are requiring a mobile device for work.  And the lack of a keyboard puts the iPhone at a nearly insurmountable disadvantage as an email device (email is the most used app for corporate users).  

I don't think it's implausible that most corporate users will have a work device (BlackBerry) and a personal device (iPhone or Android); just as most corporate users have a work computer (very often a PC) and a personal computer (very often an Apple). 

Regardless, BlackBerry is up for a big fight.  And it'll be an interesting one to watch.