While this article appeared in today's Chicago Tribune, it originated from the New York Times News Service. I would have to assume that it was distributed nationally and probably contributed to today's pop:
chicagotribune.com
BLACKBERRY MAKER THINKS
WIRELESS E-MAIL MARKET
RIPE FOR THE PICKING
By Amy Harmon
New York Times News Service
September 25, 2000
You know they've gotten a BlackBerry when they stop
calling.
No matter that the tiny keyboard on the BlackBerry, a
wireless e-mail device, requires a kind of thumb-typing
nobody learned in high school. Or that reading messages
on its pager-size screen while driving is a hazard. For a
fast-growing group of BlackBerry fans, getting and
sending text messages while away from home and office
beats verbal contact any day, all day.
"It teaches you that most of the time on the phone is
small talk," said Tom Scott, chairman of the Nantucket
Nectars juice company, who like many recent
BlackBerry converts said his phone bills had gone
down. "I don't like dealing with the cell phone. It always
goes in and out. I'm always worrying that I'm getting
cancer. And honestly, sometimes I would just rather talk
to less people than more people."
Members of the BlackBerry cult won't ask how you are
in their electronic communiques. Nor are they very likely
to give you their full attention when you are in their
physical presence, since the messages flashing on their
screens demand a quick glance and, perhaps, a
response. But they will return your e-mail almost
immediately, no matter where they are.
Which is more important?
The answer may not matter. The BlackBerry is the
forerunner of a set of tools that offer constant contact
without the need to actually talk to anyone. About a
million Americans use a wireless e-mail service, with
BlackBerry leading the pack, according to the Yankee
Group, a Boston-based telecommunications consulting
firm. That number is expected to swell to 100 million in
the next three years.
In recent months, the BlackBerry has become much
coveted by America's business professionals, who are
increasingly judged by how accessible they are to
colleagues and clients. A key draw: Unlike cellular
phone calls, which require a clear distraction of
attention, BlackBerries allow users to do two things at
once.
Internet executives rave about watching messages roll in
as they conduct other business. Along with higher
salaries and concierge service, BlackBerries headed a
list of demands submitted by junior analysts at Salomon
Smith Barney to their superiors last spring. Even
lawyers, notoriously slow to embrace e-mail in the
office, have become enthralled by the BlackBerry.
"I've heard colleagues say that when they've had the
poor taste to return e-mails from their bedrooms, it
hasn't been a welcome gesture," said David Grais, a
partner in the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in New
York. "It definitely makes you more of an e-mail junkie."
Grais uses his Blackberry to receive messages when he's
out of the office and when he's not. "If I'm two floors
away and I get a call, my secretary knows I can always
be reached," he said. "It's completely indispensable."
It is harder to see why ordinary consumers would crave
such continuous connection or be willing to pay for it.
Research in Motion, or RIM, the Canadian company
that manufactures the original BlackBerry models ($349
and $399) and a slightly larger version ($499), has so
far marketed its $40-per-month e-mail service to
corporations, and about 5,000 companies now pay for
employees to use it.
RIM said the device would soon be available in retail
stores such as Staples. America Online has announced
plans to make its e-mail and instant messaging service
available through BlackBerry-like gadgets. Earthlink, the
nation's second-largest Internet service provider, is
conducting a pilot test with BlackBerries.
"I can't tell you what motivates people to want e-mail on
their hip when they leave home," said Roland Wilcox, a
senior product manager at Earthlink. "But they do, and
we want to provide it to them."
The BlackBerry will soon face more competition, most
notably from cellular phones, which allow users to talk
and type messages with one device and are the mobile
e-mail method of choice among Europeans and
Japanese teenagers.
Because the cellular network in the United States is a
patchwork of often incompatible standards, the
BlackBerry--which uses a wireless data network built
for two-way messaging--so far has been able to provide
better coverage and lower prices here than most phone
services.
But even as this country's wireless providers find ways
to weave their networks together, it is unclear whether
Americans will take to typing with the cell phone's
number pad, which requires two presses of the 2 key to
enter the letter B, for instance.
The BlackBerry's QWERTY keyboard and its calendar
and address book features also have pitted it against the
wireless models of the Palm and the Handspring Visor
personal digital assistants. The Palm and the Visor
require users to log on to collect e-mail, while the
BlackBerry receives e-mail automatically whenever it is
on. Since the smaller version uses a AA battery that lasts
about two weeks with continuous use, users tend to
keep it turned on.
BlackBerry's biggest competition comes from Motorola,
whose new T-900 is a sort of stripped-down
BlackBerry that is considerably less expensive.
Last week, Motorola introduced the P-935, a model
aimed directly at BlackBerry's core corporate market.
For now, the BlackBerry is at the forefront of a shift in
communications reminiscent of the introduction of the
cellular phone in the early 1980s, except that it is
happening much faster and with an added dimension.
Wireless e-mail changes the nature of e-mail itself,
making for a shorter, jerkier exchange not unlike a
typical cell phone call. It also alters communication as a
whole, because people can choose to send e-mail all the
time rather than call.
More than perhaps any other electronic device, the
BlackBerry also gives its users the sense of being in
many places at once. Users say the ability to send e-mail
while waiting in line for lunch, or eating it, is one of the
BlackBerry's chief appeals.
For those not toting around a palm-size conduit to the
rest of the world, it may come to seem like a drawback. |
