Blackberry Rant

I am a gadget freak. I absolutely love to browse the aisles at stores like Best Buy. I love cell phones, PDAs, digital cameras, all sorts of gadgets.

I recently purchased a Blackberry off of eBay. It was an older model at a great price locked for my phone carrier. I was delighted that I’d have a phone and PDA all-in-one. I was also pleased to see that the Blackberry was built on Java technology and that I could readily download (for free!) the Blackberry Software Developers Kit.

I have a cell phone on the Pay & Talk plan for $10.00/mo. That plan includes text messaging, e-mails, voicemail, web-surfing, etc. If I need extra minutes during the month, it’s easy to top up during the month. It’s easy and affordable.

Armed with my new Blackberry, I called my service provider to get rates. Well wouldn’t you know it, there are no Pay & Talk plans available for BBs. The BB could only work on a BB service for 1, 2, or 3 year terms which started at $40.00/mo! The “push” e-mail technology of the BB is different from regular cell phones. So I asked whether I could use Pay & Talk and forgo the additional features the BB service would provide. That was not an option.

Another thing I learned is although a BB is unlocked for a particular service provider, it still requires the BB service to activate and the BB service is expensive no matter whom the carrier is. The BB service is geared toward corporations and businesses who can afford to shell out more for the BB service.

I did manage to sell the BB on eBay though (for a modest profit).