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Should I buy a Blackberry? |
You might have already heard some stories about the Blackberry
handhelds, or perhaps even know someone who has them. They were the
first big "thing" when it came to accessing your emails when you were
away from your computer. But now there are so many more options in the
marketplace, how do they stack up?
Generally, I am not sure what your knowledge is about the Blackberry, so I'll start it at a general level and work my way down.
For individuals like home users or sole traders, Blackberry handhelds
are very similar to the large number of Personal Digital Assistant or
PDAs (which is a generic term for small handheld devices that help
organise you) that can access emails while out of the office as well as
act like a mini-computer. There really isn't much difference at all.
Both these PDA's and Blackberry's are very good for referencing
information and doing quick checks of emails etc. They are not good for
doing large amounts of work on proposals or documents, that is what a
laptop is for.
However, for corporate environments, the Blackberry handhelds
can be puchased along with some software called the Blackberry
Enterprise Server or BES to give them much more functionality.
With the latest version of the BES version 4.0, you can synchronise the following while you are out of the office:
Emails
Calendar
Contacts
Tasks
Notes
Not only that, but handsets can be initialised while not in the
office, eg. If a user had lost their blackberry, they could buy another
one, stick the sim card in (identical to a mobile phone's sim card) and
intialise the new handset quickly and easily without stepping back into
the office.
The newest threat to the Blackberry BES is the new software
from Windows called Windows Mobile 5.0, that has come out with the
latest Microsoft Email server (called Exchange) Service pack. It allows
for email, calendar, contact, task and note synchronisation with
certain mobile and pocket PCs.
I just wanted to go through a few advantages and disadvantages about Blackberry BES versus Windows Mobile.
Advantages of the corporate BES:
1/ From a deployment
point of view, especially multiple office locations, the user just has
to enter in the email and a password and their Blackberry is
initialised.
2/ Add-ons can allow you to access third party software like ACT or Goldmine
3/ Much more mature technology than Windows Mobile 5.0,
worldwide and in use with high-availability situations like ambulances,
fire departments.
Advantages of Blackberry Handhelds:
1/ Easier to type if you know your way around a keyboard
2/ Very good reference tool for sales guys out on the road.
3/ Handsets are much cheaper than XDA's (660 vs 1000)*
4/ The data is compressed and encrypted so there is less data costs.
Disadvantages of the corporate BES:
1/ Relatively
expensive due to having to buy new server hardware, software, the BES
itself and the installation, as it needs it's own separate server. The
initial costs are cheaper with Windows Mobile Push email.
2/ Very closed infrastructure, if the company that sells Blackberry
itself (Research in Motion) was to have problems, then the
functionality itself would suffer.
Disadvantages of Blackberry Handhelds:
1/ Not as flexible as a pocket PC, Ipac, XDA, you can add more programs to work on your own device than a blackberry.
2/ Not the best for working, you really need a laptop if you are going to do more than 5 minutes of work.
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PDKM - 1300 139 434
PDKM is a Brisbane computer network support company, providing IT services for small - medium businesses in Brisbane and South East Queensland.
PDKM specialises in network design, installation and support, Blackberry installations, Small Business Server, Citrix Metaframe, Microsoft Office and Exchange, Linux Servers,Terminal Server
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