The Blackberry Shift: From the executive phone to the phone of the urban poor | Hacker News Reader

The Blackberry Shift: From the executive phone to the phone of the urban poor

anarchogeek.com

56 pointsrabble17 comments

  It happened so fast that it’s hardly been noticed in the media.
  RIM may not even know it themselves.

The suggestion that RIM may not know about it shows complete lack of knowledge, it's obvious from the marketing over the past two years that not only do they know it, they made it happen.

See for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnysB4BC5Ng and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvYlENP50jA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvqlZzhZb4Y and http://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/media/tracyandmatts_blog...

As to the media not noticing... well I've seen them notice it on numerous occasions. I don't recall if I've read an entire piece based around this one subject, but I've seen it mentioned many times as a note in a piece about RIM, or about a certain phone, or whatever.

Edit: here's another example which answers both points, http://www.slate.com/id/2213555/ (Blackberry sponsoring U2 tour). Not only is that a demonstration of Blackberry targeting this new wider audience, in March 2009, it's also an example of the media noticing.

I dont think RIM has failed to notice it. In fact in countries like India RIM has launched phones that cost lowest in the smartphone segment just $200.

So perhaps it was me, and other folks not noticing. It didn't hit the tech blogs much. The links are great, i added an update at the bottom with them.

Funny, because for a long time executives used BlackBerry devices to avoid litigation hold/e-discovery considerations.

BBM's are popular with certain types of "entrepreneurs" for the same reason that Nextel/Boost direct connect was -- they are difficult/impossible to intercept.

Not necessarily - so long as RIM are willing to get involved: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/08/blackberry_riots/

I could attest to some of the stuff this guy says. In a certain southeast-asian country, everyone is using Blackberries not because they're cool but because unlimited text-messaging plans makes them really cheap.

If you travel in more than just...ahem...Indonesia(I'm presuming), you'll notice they are "everywhere" in multiple SE Asian countries. As Nokia reigned supreme from the 90's until just a few years ago, Blackberry has become the new dumb smartphone with their Edge(or equivalent) network support. It will be a long time before most of the world is on a 4G equivalent. RIM will do fine for quite some time.

Yup. It's all BBM.

I've been using Google Voice for a year now. I haven't sent a text through ATT for a few months now.

I keep two Blackberries handy, different providers, for reliable email receipt and transmission as well as BBM as I'm frequently traveling between countries.

Bluetooth cell phone headsets had a similar trajectory.

This is a pretty poorly substantiated article with racist undertones. How is this on HN again?

I agree that it's short on hard data. But I'm not sure I'm getting "racist." Classist, maybe? But I guess you can't talk about class issues at all without someone getting their panties in a wad.

It seems like there are some objective claims here that would be pretty easy to refute. Is it true that Blackberry handsets and plans have become inexpensive and are a good way for people without a lot of money to talk and message without the kind of big monthly bill that plagues more well-heeled people? Is it true that while richer people are not buying Blackberries anymore, poorer people are?

Is it some kind of value judgement to point this out, as something that's interesting to people who are interested in the mobile computing market?

Some numbers for uk

http://kijamedia.com/2011/08/uk-mobile-phone-ownership-by-br...

Anecdotal

http://urbanmashup.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/the-london-riots...

I don't believe there are any "racist undertones" in the article. The article is observing a shift in the user demographics of blackberries from business executives to a lower economic class because the blackberry currently provides cheap messaging.

Yeah, i wanted to talk about race and class, looking at who uses them. I find it ironic that folks were calling me racist (i think they meant classist). I in fact chose the nick, rabble, in part because i identify with the unwashed masses. It's been all over the UK news that the rioters using their blackberries were the rabble. :-)

Perhaps people are calling me racist because of the mad men clip. The biz execs in that clip are racist. That's not to imply that today the execs at RIM are racist. I don't know them, couldn't tell you either way. The whole transition for blackberries is about class, not race anyway.

Because it isn't racist.

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