Mark Evans

Blackberry Backlash

Kevin Restivo, a colleague of mine at the Financial Post, had a story in Saturday's paper about people surrendering their Blackberries because they were having trouble with the always-on connectivity. (I wonder if there's a phrase to properly describe this “condition”). He cites several people who talk as if they were giving up coffee or, worse, a narcotic. Frankly, I have difficulty relating to people who don't want mobile access to e-mail. If you're a senior executive or someone who spends a lot of time out of the office, mobile e-mail is a must-have service. It's only going to get more popular as more cell phones come with e-mail software - whether it's from Research in Motion, Visto, Seven, etc. That said, I don't have mobile e-mail - at least for the time being. I can't quite justify spending $100 a month for a phone/e-mail because I don't spend that much time out of the office. Then again, I could be persuaded if there was a reliable, bug-free device that offered a calendar, contact database, phone and e-mail. Maybe the next iteration of the Treo 650 or the RIM 7100 will do the trick. I thought the Treo 650 was the one but a month-long evaluation left me disappointed.